The life of a
journalist seems to be in perpetual peril. The correspondent of an
English-language daily in Umerkot is the latest among the journalist community
to have faced physical assault. More than two dozen armed men entered by force
the house of AB Arisar located in the desert region on Wednesday and subjected
his family to severe torture. The house inmates told reporters that 15 men
armed with axes, sticks and hammers barged into the house after breaking open
locks, subjected them to torture, and dragged them out to occupy the premises.
While the apparent motive of the invasion appears unrelated to the journalist’s
professional work, the fact that his existence is vulnerable to attacks by
miscreants tells us just how under death-defying environment our journos carry
out their work.
Journalists in
Pakistan continue to face violence amid a worryingly escalating climate of
intimidation and harassment. No surprise then that Pakistan has only marginally
slipped — three notches — on the World Press Freedom index for the year 2020,
reaching 145th position out of 180 countries. Reporters Without
Borders shines a dismal light on the state of media in the country. It says
media outlets in Pakistan have been threatened with the withdrawal of
advertising. The signals of TV channels that gave airtime to opposition
representatives have been jammed. Journalists who dared to broach subjects
deemed off-limits have been subjected to harassment campaigns. It goes on to
describe how journalists continue to be at risk in the field, especially in
Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where reporters are caught in the crossfire
between the security forces and militants. Four journalists and a blogger were
killed in connection with their reporting in 2019, while one journalist was
killed in 2020.
As has been
emphasized umpteen times in these columns, the impunity with which journalists
are made target of violence must come to an end.
Newspaper: Tribune
