Peter Tatchell

Pakistan’s ISI accused of subverting media freedom

Media freedom is under attack in Pakistan, declared Hamid Mir, one of Pakistan’s most prominent journalists. He had six bullets pumped into him by bike riders in Karachi on 19 April. TV anchor, Raza Rumi, was similarly attacked in Lahore in late March. In May 2011, investigative reporter Saleem Shahzad was murdered following his allegations of links between the Pakistani military and al-Qaeda.

These are just three of the many Pakistani journalists who’ve been victims of a wave of threats and violence in recent months and years.

Even foreign journalists covering Pakistan from inside the country dare not write about certain issues for fear of being killed, or that their visas will be revoked at the behest of Islamabad’s military and security establishment – the dreaded Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI). New York Times correspondent for Pakistan, Declan Walsh, for example, now files many of his stories on Pakistan from London. He was thrown out of the country last year after displeasing the ISI with his upfront reporting.

Hamid Mir, who is recovering at home in Islamabad, with two bullets still lodged in his body, fears that Pakistan is slipping back into de facto military rule and that the country’s media is under threat from the ISI.

Mir, a star reporter with Geo TV, was shot in Karachi on his way to the channel’s headquarters. His family blame the ISI for the assassination attempt because of Mir’s vocal support for human rights and criticism of military abuses. His assailants have not been caught and although a judicial commission is probing the attack, there is little hope that his would-be killers will ever be caught. Some Pakistanis believe, like Mir’s family, that the ISI was behind the attack, or at least allowed it to happen and is protecting the perpetrators. It must, however, be said that none of the allegations against the ISI has been proved.

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