UNESCO chief condemns murder of Pakistani journalist
Malaysia Sun
Tuesday 1st March, 2011
(Source: UN News Centre)
The head of the United Nations agency tasked with protecting the freedom of expression today condemned the killing of a Pakistani journalist, Abdost Rind, in the south-western province of Balochistan, and voiced concern over the safety of media professionals in the country.
The killing of Abdos Rind raises further concern over the ability of media workers in Pakistan to exercise the fundamental human right of freedom of expression, said the Director-General of the UN Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization ( ...
Read the full story at UN News Centre
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Roundtable view: Journalism losing in ‘Seth vs State’
Roundtable view: Journalism losing in ‘Seth vs State’
By Umer Nangiana
Published: March 2, 2011
Spirit of Journalism lost in between ‘Seth vs State’, ratings wars and insensitive and inadequate use of languages.
ISLAMABAD:
The spirit of Journalism in Pakistan is at present lost somewhere in the struggle between ‘Seth vs State’, ratings wars and insensitive and inadequate use of languages.
This was the dominant view among eminent professionals associated with journalism at a roundtable on “Languages and Media: more freedom, less respect and tolerance”, organised by Citizens’ Media Initiatives and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, a German non-profit organisation.
A few participants, however, were optimistic about the state of media in Pakistan and opined that it would evolve out of its mistakes. “Viewers are already getting fed up with the 1+3 talk shows where emotions are deliberately incited,” said Harris Khalique, a well-known political analyst and writer. His views, however, were shared by only a few others.
Dr Moeed Peerzada, a talk show host, was particularly critical of the “industrialist owners of the broadcast groups” working to achieve their “vested interests”.
“Only two TV Channels, Geo and Express, are making profits while the rest are merely trying to catch up with them in the ratings wars,” he said.
He also coined the phrase ‘Seth Vs State’ to imply a struggle of governments to avoid exploitation at the hands of the ‘Seth’ — the businessperson who owns the media group. “The Seths are trying to take control of state affairs and use it to protect their own interests,” he said.
“Why would an editor, being instructed by the owner, be interested in practicing true journalism as long his interests were safe?” said Fauzia Shahid, a senior journalist.
Other senior journalists expressed their concern over the “insensitive use” of languages and the emergence of a blend of slang, in particular the mixture of English and Urdu employed by most radio stations.
Shabana Arif, a senior consultant at Rozan, a non-profit organisation, said the major portion of the Urdu press was not upholding journalistic and moral values while reporting issues of violence against women.
“There is a wide and unchecked use of insensitive words in reports related to issues such as gang rapes and police raids against prostitutes. Words like dosheeza, no-khaiz and no-umar are openly used merely to incite emotions,” she said.
She also talked about the carelessness of publishing photographs of victims without their consent. “This type of reporting could seriously hinder women from reporting crimes and contribute to restrict their movement.”
Published in The Express Tribune, March 2nd, 2011.
By Umer Nangiana
Published: March 2, 2011
Spirit of Journalism lost in between ‘Seth vs State’, ratings wars and insensitive and inadequate use of languages.
ISLAMABAD:
The spirit of Journalism in Pakistan is at present lost somewhere in the struggle between ‘Seth vs State’, ratings wars and insensitive and inadequate use of languages.
This was the dominant view among eminent professionals associated with journalism at a roundtable on “Languages and Media: more freedom, less respect and tolerance”, organised by Citizens’ Media Initiatives and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, a German non-profit organisation.
A few participants, however, were optimistic about the state of media in Pakistan and opined that it would evolve out of its mistakes. “Viewers are already getting fed up with the 1+3 talk shows where emotions are deliberately incited,” said Harris Khalique, a well-known political analyst and writer. His views, however, were shared by only a few others.
Dr Moeed Peerzada, a talk show host, was particularly critical of the “industrialist owners of the broadcast groups” working to achieve their “vested interests”.
“Only two TV Channels, Geo and Express, are making profits while the rest are merely trying to catch up with them in the ratings wars,” he said.
He also coined the phrase ‘Seth Vs State’ to imply a struggle of governments to avoid exploitation at the hands of the ‘Seth’ — the businessperson who owns the media group. “The Seths are trying to take control of state affairs and use it to protect their own interests,” he said.
“Why would an editor, being instructed by the owner, be interested in practicing true journalism as long his interests were safe?” said Fauzia Shahid, a senior journalist.
Other senior journalists expressed their concern over the “insensitive use” of languages and the emergence of a blend of slang, in particular the mixture of English and Urdu employed by most radio stations.
Shabana Arif, a senior consultant at Rozan, a non-profit organisation, said the major portion of the Urdu press was not upholding journalistic and moral values while reporting issues of violence against women.
“There is a wide and unchecked use of insensitive words in reports related to issues such as gang rapes and police raids against prostitutes. Words like dosheeza, no-khaiz and no-umar are openly used merely to incite emotions,” she said.
She also talked about the carelessness of publishing photographs of victims without their consent. “This type of reporting could seriously hinder women from reporting crimes and contribute to restrict their movement.”
Published in The Express Tribune, March 2nd, 2011.
Iraq: “Black day” for media freedom
Iraq: “Black day” for media freedom
Mar 2nd, 2011 | By Bikya Masr Staff | Category: Media News
Reporters Without Borders urged the Iraqi government today to allow journalists to do their job freely and to make every effort to ensure their physical safety after what it called “one of the blackest days for media freedom” in the country since US combat troops left last August.
Journalists were “attacked and illegally and summarily arrested” by police and soldiers who were “supposed to protect them” during demonstrations to mark the 25 February “day of rage” in many cities, including Baghdad, Karbala, Mosul and Basra, the organisation’s secretary-general, Jean-François Julliard, said.
He urged the government to investigate all the abuses and punish those responsible as a matter of course.
The army had two days earlier banned the live televising of the Baghdad protest. (http://en.rsf.org/iraq-authorities-prohibit-live-24-02-2011,39626.html)
Police sealed off Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, where the city’s demonstration took place, and helicopters were used to help block access.
Cameramen from Al-Baghdadiya and d’Al-Sharqiya were arrested while filming security forces firing assault weapons and using tear gas to disperse protesters.
A cameraman from the satellite TV station Faiha injured his hand when he was attacked by security forces.
Journalist Seif Al-Khayat was run over by a police car.
Police raided and searched the premises of the TV station Al-Diyar, which was covering the demonstrations from the roof of its building. Reporter Ali Al-’Ainbaki and nine technicians were arrested and the station went off the air.
Two journalists from the satellite TV station Al-Sumariya, Idris Jawad and Sanan Adnan, along with cameramen Satar Muhammed Abdul and Safa Hatem, were arrested after reporting on the protest. They were accused of participating in and helping to organise it and were held for several hours at the Al-Rusafa operations centre (eastern Baghdad).
Thaier Al-Sudani, a Reuters photographer, and Ahmad Al-Rubaie, of Agence France-Presse, were also arrested.
Cameraman Imed Hamed, of satellite TV station Al-Hurra, and his assistant Mustafa Kazem were arrested by riot police in Baghdad and their cameras and recordings seized.
After the demonstration, agents of the 11th intelligence police division burst into the Al-Taraf restaurant in central Baghdad and arrested four journalists – Hussam Serail (a reporter with Al-Sabah), Ali Abdul SadaAl-Mada), Hadi Al-Mahdi (a presenter with Radio Demozy) and Ali Sumerian (of Al-Sabah). They were insulted and punched and then taken to division headquarters at the former defence ministry building. They were handcuffed, blindfolded, beaten and threatened for several hours before being released. (
In Karbala, Reuters correspondent Mushtaq Muhammad was hospitalised with serious head injuries after a policeman clubbed him while he filmed the protests. His camera was destroyed. The provincial chief minister apologised to him and the news agency after investigating the incident. The journalist called for an example to be made of the policeman to ensure such an incident did not happen again.
Riot police in Karbala also beat and insulted crews from TV stations Afaq TV and Al-Salam TV and seized their recordings. Reporter Ahmed Hiyali, of Radio Sawa, was badly beaten by a special police unit in Mosul and prevented from covering the protests there. A colleague, Adel Sayegh, of the TV station Al-Salah A-Din, said Hiyali was repeatedly hit before being taken to the provincial assembly building.
Soldiers confiscated cameras and recordings from several journalists covering the protests in Basra. Radio Dijla reporter Mohammed Al-Jabri was insulted and also beaten with a rifle butt.
The journalist Muntazer Al-Zaidi, famous for throwing a shoe at US President George Bush in 2008, was arrested on 24 February while trying to hold a press conference in front of the Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad’s Adhamiyah neighbourhood. He was subsequently released.
A total of 23 journalists jointly announced on 27 February they would boycott the offices of prime minister Nuri-Al-Maliki and the Baghdad military commander in protest against the violence against journalists by the security forces and their arbitrary attempts to prevent coverage of the demonstrations. In an open letter, they demanded official apologies and an immediate halt to attacks on the media.
Gen. Qassem Atta, spokesman for the Baghdad military chief, duly apologised and said the attacks on freedom of expression were “unintentional.” In response to a question from a cameraman with the satellite TV station Turkmen Illy during a news conference yesterday, Prime Minister Maliki apologized to journalists for the violence used by the security forces and promised both sanctions and reforms.
Mohammed Al-Hamdani, a correspondent for the satellite TV station Al-Itijah, was meanwhile killed in a suicide bombing in Ramadi, the capital of Al-Anbar province (110 km west of Baghdad) on 24 February. Ahmed Abdul Salam, a journalist working for the satellite TV station Al-Aan, was wounded by the same explosion. The bombing was at the House of Culture in the neighbourhood known as 17 Tammuz, where a religious festivity was being held. The overall toll was 14 dead and 23 wounded, including the journalists covering the event.
Mar 2nd, 2011 | By Bikya Masr Staff | Category: Media News
Reporters Without Borders urged the Iraqi government today to allow journalists to do their job freely and to make every effort to ensure their physical safety after what it called “one of the blackest days for media freedom” in the country since US combat troops left last August.
Journalists were “attacked and illegally and summarily arrested” by police and soldiers who were “supposed to protect them” during demonstrations to mark the 25 February “day of rage” in many cities, including Baghdad, Karbala, Mosul and Basra, the organisation’s secretary-general, Jean-François Julliard, said.
He urged the government to investigate all the abuses and punish those responsible as a matter of course.
The army had two days earlier banned the live televising of the Baghdad protest. (http://en.rsf.org/iraq-authorities-prohibit-live-24-02-2011,39626.html)
Police sealed off Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, where the city’s demonstration took place, and helicopters were used to help block access.
Cameramen from Al-Baghdadiya and d’Al-Sharqiya were arrested while filming security forces firing assault weapons and using tear gas to disperse protesters.
A cameraman from the satellite TV station Faiha injured his hand when he was attacked by security forces.
Journalist Seif Al-Khayat was run over by a police car.
Police raided and searched the premises of the TV station Al-Diyar, which was covering the demonstrations from the roof of its building. Reporter Ali Al-’Ainbaki and nine technicians were arrested and the station went off the air.
Two journalists from the satellite TV station Al-Sumariya, Idris Jawad and Sanan Adnan, along with cameramen Satar Muhammed Abdul and Safa Hatem, were arrested after reporting on the protest. They were accused of participating in and helping to organise it and were held for several hours at the Al-Rusafa operations centre (eastern Baghdad).
Thaier Al-Sudani, a Reuters photographer, and Ahmad Al-Rubaie, of Agence France-Presse, were also arrested.
Cameraman Imed Hamed, of satellite TV station Al-Hurra, and his assistant Mustafa Kazem were arrested by riot police in Baghdad and their cameras and recordings seized.
After the demonstration, agents of the 11th intelligence police division burst into the Al-Taraf restaurant in central Baghdad and arrested four journalists – Hussam Serail (a reporter with Al-Sabah), Ali Abdul SadaAl-Mada), Hadi Al-Mahdi (a presenter with Radio Demozy) and Ali Sumerian (of Al-Sabah). They were insulted and punched and then taken to division headquarters at the former defence ministry building. They were handcuffed, blindfolded, beaten and threatened for several hours before being released. (
In Karbala, Reuters correspondent Mushtaq Muhammad was hospitalised with serious head injuries after a policeman clubbed him while he filmed the protests. His camera was destroyed. The provincial chief minister apologised to him and the news agency after investigating the incident. The journalist called for an example to be made of the policeman to ensure such an incident did not happen again.
Riot police in Karbala also beat and insulted crews from TV stations Afaq TV and Al-Salam TV and seized their recordings. Reporter Ahmed Hiyali, of Radio Sawa, was badly beaten by a special police unit in Mosul and prevented from covering the protests there. A colleague, Adel Sayegh, of the TV station Al-Salah A-Din, said Hiyali was repeatedly hit before being taken to the provincial assembly building.
Soldiers confiscated cameras and recordings from several journalists covering the protests in Basra. Radio Dijla reporter Mohammed Al-Jabri was insulted and also beaten with a rifle butt.
The journalist Muntazer Al-Zaidi, famous for throwing a shoe at US President George Bush in 2008, was arrested on 24 February while trying to hold a press conference in front of the Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad’s Adhamiyah neighbourhood. He was subsequently released.
A total of 23 journalists jointly announced on 27 February they would boycott the offices of prime minister Nuri-Al-Maliki and the Baghdad military commander in protest against the violence against journalists by the security forces and their arbitrary attempts to prevent coverage of the demonstrations. In an open letter, they demanded official apologies and an immediate halt to attacks on the media.
Gen. Qassem Atta, spokesman for the Baghdad military chief, duly apologised and said the attacks on freedom of expression were “unintentional.” In response to a question from a cameraman with the satellite TV station Turkmen Illy during a news conference yesterday, Prime Minister Maliki apologized to journalists for the violence used by the security forces and promised both sanctions and reforms.
Mohammed Al-Hamdani, a correspondent for the satellite TV station Al-Itijah, was meanwhile killed in a suicide bombing in Ramadi, the capital of Al-Anbar province (110 km west of Baghdad) on 24 February. Ahmed Abdul Salam, a journalist working for the satellite TV station Al-Aan, was wounded by the same explosion. The bombing was at the House of Culture in the neighbourhood known as 17 Tammuz, where a religious festivity was being held. The overall toll was 14 dead and 23 wounded, including the journalists covering the event.
Monday, February 28, 2011
SIRAJ-UD-DIN (SHAHEED) JOURNALIST “ DAILY THE NATION”
To All the Members of PFUJ,
MY BELOVED FATHER SIRAJ-UD-DIN (SHAHEED) JOURNALIST “ DAILY THE NATION”
Dear All,
My beloved father Mr.Sirajuddin was a journalist and associated with journalism for more than two decades. For the last three years he was associated with the English Daily “The Nation” as Staff Reporter before his sad demise on February 29, 2008.
My Father (Shaheed), first he was seriously injured in a suicide attack on the funeral of late DSP, Javed Iqbal in Haji baba School, Mingora on February 29, 2008 while performing his professional duties succumbed to his injuries and embraced martyrdom.
As I accompanied my father on that fateful evening, I am an eyewitness to the blood and gore, which created a wave of trauma and hysteria all over the valley. The spectacle was so horrifying and devastating that words fell short to describe it. It will haunt me for the rest of my life. No one can forget the colossal human loss on that cursed evening. And none can substantiate why my innocent father was murdered so brutally.
Today for the first time the 3rd death anniversary of The Nation Staff Reporter and my father Journalist Siraj ud Din (Shaheed) was observed on a plat form (Swat Press Club). In this connection Swat Union of journalists have chalked out a programme at Swat press club to pay rich tribute to the work and sacrifices rendered by the martyr journalist who is one of the founders of Swat Press Club.
He had been served his services in Journalism for 23 years, My father Siraj Uddin (Shaheed) had made an impression on his colleagues. He played a pioneering role in the field of objective journalism in the region and was also a role model in the profession. He was a kind, decent and curious. He was also a freedom fighter.
Respected Members, I have been watching you people on television in several live transmission saying that the Journalists of Pakistan especially at swat sacrificed their lives and covered every event in the own going war against terrorism, I would like to draw yours kind attention towards my father martyrdom. We are amongst those families who are directly suffered. My father breathed his last in my arms before my eyes. How can a son forget all this? How can he console his heart that for what crime his beloved father was so brutally murdered?
Adding more for your kind attention that so far not government official neither PFUJ member contacted us even no body made up sympathy call or messages in the past three years. Last year Prime Minister announced that one member of each family who lost a family member in the war against terrorism will get employment in government institution. Government pledges are at large made to the our family. I request you people to kindly take personal interest in my appeal and remind the PM his pledge made to us to please provide government employment to my brother Asif Ali who is done his MBA. We hope for and seek the help of the PFUJ in these helpless, tragic and heartrending circumstances.
Further More,
1. It was announced by President that each victim of the violence in swat would be compensated. The compensation amount announced was Rs. 300,000.00 (Rupees Three Hundred Thousand Only) for each of the dead. So far we did not appear to have received the compensation, announced by President. We wrote again to Presidency office in the same matter, copy of its reply is attached for your kind attention.
Some of the victims of the suicide attack in which my father embraced martyrdom have been compensated from the announced Presidential Funds. We request PFUJ to please provide us this compensation amount to overcome our financial constraints and limitations.
2. In addition to this the benefits, provided by the Government of Pakistan, to which the journalists and their families are entitled after their demise should kindly urged the government officials to provide us.
a. Inclusion of my father’s name in the Journalist Victim Fund
b. Allotment of plot in the Journalist Colon Either in Peshawer or at Islamabad
I am writing this letter with great expectations and hope that PFUJ will certainly seek out a way to help us in these hours of distress and suffering.
Always praying for the good will of Pakistan.
Haroon Siraj
Correspondent Daily The Nation at Swat
S/O
S/O
Siraj-ud-Din (Shaheed)
House#02, Siraj-ud-Din Street,
Kalam Road Fizagat,
Mingora Swat.
Ph: Res: 0946-814275
Cell: 0301-8524008
Kalam Road Fizagat,
Mingora Swat.
Ph: Res: 0946-814275
Cell: 0301-8524008
News Video
News Video
© UNESCO/Michel Ravassard
UNESCO produces Television releases (B-rolls) enabling journalists to edit television items on UNESCO,Video News Releases illustrating UNESCO projects and activities, thematic videos promoting UNESCO programmes, Public Service Announcements delivering key messages and Video interviews of experts.
Director-General condems murder of Pakistani journalist Abdost Rind in Balochistan
28-02-2011 (Paris)
The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, today condemned the shooting to death of Abdost Rind, a reporter with the Urdu-language newspaper Daily Eagle on 18 February in Pakistan’s Balochistan province and voiced concern over the safety of media workers in the region.
“I condemn the murder of Abdos Rind,” the Director-General declared. “The killing of Abdos Rind raises further concern over the ability of media workers in Pakistan to exercise the fundamental human right of freedom of expression. All of us depend on free media to engage in informed debate and make responsible choices.”
Mr Rind is reported to have been shot repeatedly by unidentified assailants on his way home from work. He is the second media worker killed in Balochistan this year, according to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
Reporters Without Borders says that 11 journalists were killed in Pakistan in 2010, making it the most dangerous place in the world for the profession.
UNESCO is the United Nations agency with a mandate to defend freedom of expression and press freedom. Article 1 of its Constitution requires the Organization to “further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations.” To realize this the Organization is requested to “collaborate in the work of advancing the mutual knowledge and understanding of peoples, through all means of mass communication and to that end recommend such international agreements as may be necessary to promote the free flow of ideas by word and image…”
Exploitation of Mineral Wealth
Exploitation of Mineral Wealth | |
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By Sanaullah Baloch
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