CPJ.Pakistan.Roots.of.Impunity

The Taliban claimed responsibility for this roadside bombing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. REUTERS/M. ABDULLAH
est city, Karachi, where Babar was murdered, is a combat
zone of political parties fighting for turf, militant groups
establishing rear-echelon redoubts, and criminal gangs
hungering for profit. At least three journalists have been
killed in Karachi because of their work in the past decade.
The intelligence services feel free to pursue their
own political agendas; their actions are partly the
cause and partly the result of the nationwide free-forall
of violence. The military, which has taken power
three times since the country’s founding in 1947,
brooks little criticism and never hesitates to threaten
journalists who dare to speak out. Government, military,
and intelligence officials are suspected of involvement
in at least seven journalist murders in the past
decade, CPJ research shows. Weak civilian governments
have wielded little control over them.
Working in this milieu are news media surprisingly
free and robust. An explosion of private cable
television broadcasters that began under Gen. Pervez
Musharraf has resulted in more than 90 stations today.
Print and radio outlets thrive. But journalists also say
that media outlets are manipulated by the military and
intelligence services, and that news organizations have
not met the escalating risks with commensurate security
and training measures. In recent years, the industry’s
news managers have undertaken several sincere
attempts to raise the quality and security of Pakistani
media. Most admit it is still a work in progress.
In May 2011, a CPJ delegation met with President
Asif Ali Zardari and several cabinet members. At that
meeting, the president pledged to address the country’s
record of impunity in anti-press violence. In fact,
nothing substantial was undertaken, and the record has
only worsened. In most cases documented by CPJ, little
has been done beyond the filing of a preliminary police
report. In 2012, when the United Nations’ educational
wing, UNESCO, drafted a plan to combat impunity in
journalist murders worldwide, Pakistan lobbied furiously,
if unsuccessfully, to have it derailed. A senior Pakistani
official told CPJ at the time that it would be “unfair to
say outrightly that Pakistan has a high rate of unresolved
cases.” The facts—23 murders, all unsolved—show
otherwise. The president’s office did not respond to CPJ’s
request for comment on the findings of this report.
Pakistan’s leaders have not met their obligation to
guarantee the rule of law and fundamental human
rights. The newly elected government owes its citizens a
criminal justice system that is independent, its investigators
and prosecutors sufficiently supported with staff
and resources to bring about successful prosecutions.
Many journalist murders go unprosecuted because of intimidation,
interference, or worse from political parties,
the military, and the intelligence services. That must end.
Given the breakdowns, Pakistani journalists have
begun addressing the problems on their own. Larger
media houses are strengthening training and security.
Some are setting out guidelines for ethical conduct.
Journalists are drawing on a long heritage of professional
solidarity to speak against anti-press harassment.
As one of the nation’s strongest democratic institutions—and
one of its most imperiled—the press has both
the ability and the urgent need to find effective solutions. n
Bob Dietz is Asia program coordinator for the Committee
to Protect Journalists. He reported from Pakistan in
2009 during the government’s military offensive in
Swat, and was part of the CPJ delegation that met with
President Zardari in 2011.
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