3. Juni 2014

 

Die folgenden Ausschnitte aus ausgewählten Quellen enthalten Informationen zu oben genannter Fragestellung (Zugriff auf alle Quellen am 3. Juni 2014):

 

·      AFP - Agence France-Presse: Shootings, impunity: 'extreme fear' stalks Pakistan's media, 23. April 2014 (veröffentlicht von ReliefWeb)

http://reliefweb.int/report/pakistan/shootings-impunity-extreme-fear-stalks-pakistans-media

„The shooting of one of Pakistan’s most famous TV presenters has highlighted the climate of ‘extreme fear’ facing the country’s media, journalists say, as hardliners of different stripes seek to silence dissenting voices. Hamid Mir, host of Capital Talk, a primetime current affairs show on the Geo channel, was shot at least three times in his car in Karachi on Saturday. It is not the first time the stocky, moustached Mir has survived an attempt on his life: last year police defused a bomb attached to his car in Islamabad. Last month another high-profile presenter, Raza Rumi, survived a murder bid by gunmen in the eastern city of Lahore – though his driver was not so lucky. He was cut down in a hail of bullets.

Pakistan is regarded as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for media, with more than 50 journalists killed since 2001, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) campaign group. For years reporters have lived with threats from militants such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and complained of shadowy warnings from the country's powerful military and intelligence services.

Both Mir and Rumi have taken a stand on issues that many public figures in Pakistan shy away from for fear of inflaming influential – and sometimes dangerous – conservative forces. Mir has been a critic of the Taliban and also, in more veiled terms, of Pakistan's powerful armed forces, particularly their activities in southwestern Baluchistan province, where they are blamed for the disappearance of hundreds of people with links to separatist groups. Rumi has spoken out to defend minority religious groups and against the country’s harsh blasphemy laws.

In Rumi's case, police said on Saturday they had caught six men linked to the sectarian militant outfit Laskhar-e-Jhangvi who had admitted attacking the journalist. But even if the police have the right men, in Pakistan's sclerotic and dysfunctional legal system there is no guarantee they will be convicted and remain behind bars. ‘There is one common thing to these attacks against medias – the culprit will not be punished,’ a senior media executive told AFP on condition of anonymity. ‘There is a sense of impunity – if you kill a journalist, you won't be punished.’ Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has set up a special commission to probe the Mir shooting, but few in the media hold out hopes of it achieving much. A similar investigation followed the killing in 2011 of Saleem Shahzad, who disappeared a few days after writing an article about links between Al-Qaeda and rogue elements in the Pakistani navy. Before his death Shahzad told Human Rights Watch he had been threatened by intelligence agents, but the commission said it could not identify his killers. This month the CPJ [Committee to Protect Journalists] ranked Pakistan among the 10 countries where journalist murders are most likely to go unpunished. The conviction of six men last month for killing Geo reporter Wali Khan Babar in 2011 was the first successful prosecution for the murder of a Pakistani journalist, according to CPJ.” (AFP, 23. April 2014)

·      BBC News: Pakistan in pledge to protect journalists, 29. März 2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26774246#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

„The Pakistani Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, has pledged to do more to protect Pakistani journalists. Writer Ahmed Rashid, who is also a member of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, says there are hopes this could mark a historic shift in the state's attitude to the press.

The brutal recent killing of Afghan journalist Sardar Ahmad, his wife and two children by the Taliban in Kabul's Serena Hotel has been received by Pakistani journalists with shock but also a sense of belonging to the same suffering tribe. For too long Pakistani journalists have suffered death, kidnapping and torture at the hands of militants, political parties and the state's intelligence agencies - although this has always been denied by those accused. In all, 46 journalists have been killed, 25 of whom were murdered in the past decade. Dozens more have been threatened and intimidated. Yet until March there had not been a single conviction for the murder of a Pakistani journalist. Courts refused to pursue cases, witnesses were killed or failed to turn up, lawyers refused to take up briefs and in those cases where it was suspected that Pakistan's intelligence agencies may be involved, many journalists were too scared. […]

Mr Sharif said he would establish public prosecutors in all four provinces and at the federal level to take up cases involving journalists. The government will pursue the courts to bring those cases of murdered journalists to trial. A new commission composed of both journalists and government officials will be set up in order to monitor abuses and there will also be a venue where the press can air their complaints. He announced these measure on 19 March to a delegation of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) headed by Board Member Kati Marton, an American writer and journalist and the widow of US diplomat Richard Holbrook. CPJ had a long list of measures that the Pakistan government needed to take up in order to provide greater protection for journalists. Mr Sharif agreed to all of them including changing trial venues of murdered journalists to avoid attacks, placing journalists' security high on the agenda as the government enters into talks with the Pakistani Taliban and highlighting the plight of journalists in Balochistan and the tribal areas. He also agreed to review the lifting of restrictions on issuing visas and the travel limits placed on foreign correspondents, which have hurt Pakistan's image abroad and contributed to the idea that the country is off limits. There will be a review of the Declan Walsh case - the New York Times reporter who was forced to leave the country and declared persona non grata last year. No Pakistani leader has ever promised such measures, even though they still have to be put into practice.” (BBC News, 29. März 2014)

·      The Diplomat: Pakistan Journalists Under Threat (Autor: Idress Ali), 14. Mai 2014

http://thediplomat.com/2014/05/pakistan-journalists-under-threat/

„Approaching the third anniversary of the murder of Saleem Shahzad, a Pakistani journalist killed as he investigated the murky relationship between the ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] and Al-Qaeda, little progress has been made with the investigation. In many ways, Shahzad’s case signifies the challenge in Pakistan: brave journalists who face threats from non-state and state actors, and a system that is unable to provide them with the protection urgently required. ‘Pakistani journalists are facing a conglomeration of threats and threats from so many different sides,’ said Bob Dietz, coordinator of the Asia Program at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists throughout the world. At least 34 Pakistani journalists have been killed as a direct result of their work since 2008, when democracy was restored in the country, according to a recent report by Amnesty International titled ‘A Bullet Has Been Chosen for You.’ While journalists around the world usually face threats from a specific source, such increasingly authoritarian governments in Turkey and Egypt, journalists in Pakistan must overcome threats from both state and non-state actors. […]

However, another threat is posed by the state, and in particular the military. ‘There is not a generalized fear, like there is with the Taliban, that you will be targeted if you talk about the army, but journalists in the past who have examined very closely the militant nexus with the armed forces have been targeted,’ said Husain [a business and economy journalist in Pakistan]. Reporting on the military in Pakistan is considered to be a ‘red line’ and in order to remain safe, important issues are sometimes ignored by the media, according to Rumi [a columnist and TV anchor for Express News]. While no one has been convicted for the abduction and murder of Saleem Shahzad, who had published a report on the relationship between the military and Al-Qaeda, the role of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has once again come up in the Amnesty International report. The report said that the ISI had a ‘tendency to send veiled threats against those who displeased them’ such as journalists receiving anonymous calls and threats, or otherwise being intimidated. Historically, the military establishment has not targeted high-profile journalists, but rather more vulnerable and small-town reporters, according to Michael Kugelman, senior program associate for South and Southeast Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Data collected by PPF [Pakistan Press Foundation] and mapped show that most of the attacks on journalists have been outside the larger cities.” (The Dilpomat, 14. Mai 2014)

Der im obigen Zitat erwähnte, umfassende Bericht von Amnesty International (AI) zu Angriffen auf JournalistInnen in Pakistan ist unter folgendem Link verfügbar:

·      AI - Amnesty International: "A bullet has been chosen for you": Attacks on journalists in Pakistan [ASA 33/005/2014], 30. April 2014

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA33/005/2014/en/bcaa2bbb-4926-4bd3-b7f9-a8411034f420/asa330052014en.pdf

 

·      Zia Ur Rehman: Double jeopardy -- Attacks on journalists increase with impunity, 8. April 2014 (veröffentlicht von AHRC)

http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-ART-027-2014

„The journalists reporting on the two conflicts, namely Taliban militancy and the Baloch insurgency are faced with double jeopardy. They walk a tight rope while reporting. If their reports are viewed favourably by the terrorists in case of the Taliban or insurgents in case of Baloch, the journalists become a target of the security agencies or the terrorists and insurgents. This is not an easy situation to deal with by the journalists reporting in the conflict zones.

It is obvious that the media in Pakistan has become fully corporate and the journalists reporting on conflicts are becoming more and more vulnerable as their respective media houses do not give them support in terms of life insurance, training and enough financial benefits. Perhaps Pakistan is the only country in world where news channels make more money than the entertainment media.

Background interviews with journalists and media rights campaigners suggest that journalists belonging to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FAT) and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa face higher risks and in many cases, they are not only harassed, threatened but their families also suffer threats and harassment. At least three journalists- Aslam Durrani of Peshawar, Mumtaz Malik of North Wazirstan and Ayub Khattak of Karak- have been killed in North-western Pakistan because of their reporting during the year 2013. Other have been kidnapped, assaulted and suffered various kinds of abuse. […]

In Balochistan the situation is no different from FATA where the intelligence agencies, Baloch insurgents, underground death squads and sectarian groups like the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi have reportedly threatened journalists and in some cases have killed them. Rights groups have been reporting the deaths of journalists at the hands of intelligence agencies for a long time now.” (Zia Ur Rehman, 8. April 2014)

·      FCO - UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Human Rights and Democracy Report 2013 - Section XI: Human Rights in Countries of Concern - Pakistan, 10. April 2014 (verfügbar auf ecoi.net)

http://www.ecoi.net/local_link/273706/402743_de.html

„Despite a diverse and lively media and active civil society, Pakistan remains one of the most dangerous places for journalists to work. Reporters Without Borders rated Pakistan 159 out of 179 countries (down eight places) in its 2013 World Press Freedom Index. In 2013, at least six journalists were killed, whilst covering the May elections or caught up in suicide bombings. The mutilated body of a Baloch journalist missing since March was found in August in Karachi. Pakistani journalists complain of harassment by the security forces if they report on Balochistan and other sensitive areas, and increasing threats by the Pakistan Taliban if they are critical of their activities. Foreign journalists can also be targeted. In May, on the eve of national elections, the Islamabad bureau chief of The New York Times was expelled from the country for ‘undesirable activities’. The New York Times coverage of militancy and Balochistan was reported to have displeased the army.” (FCO, 10. April 2014)

·      USDOS - US Department of State: Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2013 - Pakistan, 27. Februar 2014 (verfügbar auf ecoi.net)

http://www.ecoi.net/local_link/270793/400683_de.html

„The law provides for freedom of speech and press; however, there was some censorship, and threats, harassment, violence, and killings led journalists and editors to practice self-censorship. […]

The independent media were active and expressed a wide variety of views; journalists often criticized the government. Persecution of minorities was covered; however, journalists were restricted when criticizing or questioning the role of the military. By law the government may restrict information that might be prejudicial to the national interest. Threats and violence against journalists who reported on sensitive problems such as security force abuses occurred during the year. […]

During the year security forces, political parties, militants, and other groups subjected media outlets, journalists, and their families to violence and harassment. Journalists were abducted. Media outlets that did not practice self-censorship were often the targets of retribution. According to the CPJ [Committee to Protect Journalists], seven journalists were killed during the year for reporting on sensitive topics. Reporters Without Borders reported seven journalists killed and one media assistant imprisoned. A number of journalists also reportedly were subjected to physical attack, harassment, intimidation, kidnapping, or other forms of pressure during the year. The CPJ included the country in its annual ‘impunity index’ because the government allowed deadly violence against members of the press to go unpunished.” (USDOS, 27. Februar 2014, Section 2a)

·      HRW - Human Rights Watch: World Report 2014 - Pakistan, 21. Jänner 2014 (verfügbar auf ecoi.net)

http://www.ecoi.net/local_link/267806/395161_de.html

„A climate of fear impedes media coverage of both state security forces and militant groups. Journalists rarely report on human rights abuses by the military in counterterrorism operations, and the Taliban and other armed groups regularly threaten media outlets over their coverage. […] In May, the longtime New York Times Islamabad bureau chief, Declan Walsh, was expelled from the country at the behest of the military because of his coverage of Balochistan and militant groups. Pakistani and international journalists protested his expulsion. The authorities had not allowed Walsh permission to return at time of writing.” (HRW, 21. Jänner 2014)

Weitere Informationen finden sich in den folgenden Berichten:

·      ACCORD - Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation: Pakistan - COI Compilation, Juni 2013 (verfügbar auf ecoi.net), S. 134-137

http://www.ecoi.net/file_upload/90_1371627314_accord-coi-compilation-pakistan-june-2013.pdf

·      UK Home Office: Country of Origin Information (COI) Report; Pakistan, 9. August 2013 (verfügbar auf ecoi.net), S. 109-110

http://www.ecoi.net/file_upload/1226_1376313580_report-09082013.pdf