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Read, Debate: Engage.
| topic: | Freedom of Expression |
|---|---|
| located: | Pakistan |
| editor: | Shadi Khan Saif |
The free and critical voice of Pakistan’s otherwise vocal and independent free press is fading away under brazen intimidations and hidden curbs by the forces of the deep state.
Right on the World Press Freedom Day, when thousands were mourning the suspicious killing of Arif Wazir, a political activist of the popular Pashtun Tahafuz (safety) Movement, the grim blackout of the coverage for the issue once again exposed the scary censorship imposed on the media outlets.
Not a single leading news organization dared to cover such a large crowd that clearly held the deep state forces responsible for the alleged target killing of yet another activists associated with the PTM, an indigenous movement by the ethnic Pashtun minority in Pakistan against forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other forms of persecutions and discrimination.
The troubling trend has gained momentum under the rule of prime minister Imran Khan, the sportsman-turned-politician widely seen as the apple of the powerful army’s eye.
Just few days back, an exiled Pakistani journalist, Sajid Hussain, who was living in Sweden after covering violence, crime and a simmering insurgency in his home country, was found dead in a river north of Stockholm. And, guess what, blackout on coverage related to his suspicious murder and his past work.
Reporters Without Borders suggested in a statement that Mr. Hussain’s death could have followed an abduction “at the behest of a Pakistani intelligence agency.”
In such a chain of events, the country has seen a number of private news TV channels went off the air simply for airing interviews and short news clips of politicians mainly from the opposition including former president Ashf Ali Zardari.
After literally snatching the independence from the local media, the deep state forces during Khan’s tenure have moved on to ban a number of foreign media outlets in a clear bid to make situation vague for the masses so that the audience may be supplied with selective interpretations. This ban was connected with the PTM. The Voice of America’s Pashto and Urdu services remains banned for covering the PTM.
Under such circumstances, with free press in hidden chains, democracy in Pakistan is simply absent, the country is practically under rule by the deep state.
