Pakistan’s most prominent journalist shot by gunman in Karachi

By Shahan Mufti (http://www.cjr.org/)

Geo TV Anchor Hamir Mir

An apparent assassination attempt on Hamid Mir illustrates the price that comes with the higher profile and influence of the news media in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s most famous and influential journalist is recovering in a hospital after being shot by a gunman in the metropolis of Karachi this weekend. The apparent assassination attempt against Hamid Mir sent shockwaves across the Pakistani political landscape. Mir has yet to speak, but his brother took to the airwaves of GEO News, the television channel that employs Mir, and pointed the finger at Pakistan’s main military intelligence agency, the ISI. The powerful agency volleyed back, vowing a lawsuit against GEO.

MEDIA COMMERCIALIZATION

Date: 21 Apr 2014, PROFESSOR ALI SUKHANVER (http://kashmirwatch.com/)

How could we expect peace and prosperity in a society if there is no freedom of expression? Freedom of expression is one of the basic human rights; the world of today is emphasizing the most. If you are not allowed to speak the truth, to criticize the wrong doings of the rulers and to express your fears and apprehensions in national interest, it means you are being deprived of your basic human rights as a citizen. Unfortunately Pakistan is rapidly becoming a country where wise men have started preferring Silence to Utterance. Here you would be sent to the eternal realm of silence if you talk too much of the things which are not acceptable to those who are stronger than you. The brutal targeted killing attempt on a very popular Pakistani TV anchor Mr. Hamid Mir in Karachi also narrates the same story. 

Pakistan not safe but produces brave journalists

Pakistani journalists rally to protest the attack on Hamid Mir, a senior Pakistani journalist and host of his TV talk show Capital Talk, in Islamabad,

Internews/Islamabad (http://www.gulf-times.com/)
Pakistan may not be the safest place for journalism, but it does breed brave, undeterred, upright and honest journalists like Hamid Mir, who could not be silenced through violence.
During the past few weeks, a sustained campaign has started where journalists are being threatened, harassed and attacked.
However, Pakistani journalists are not alien to attacks as since 2000, according to some reports, more than 100 journalists have sacrificed their lives in the line of duty while several others were attacked, tortured and threatened, but all such incidents have not stopped the journalists from bringing the truth before the general public.

Journalism in Pakistan, a threatened existence

By Rabia Mehmood (http://www.aljazeera.com/)

Journalists in Pakistan face threats and violent attacks while trying to report on sensitive subjects.
"I cannot believe that a life has been lost because of me, how will I live with myself?" This was the first sentence my friend, journalist Raza Rumi, uttered when I went to see him the night he survived an assassination attempt, which killed his driver on March 28. Rumi was surrounded by his other friends, journalists who came to see him, as police officers walked in and out of his house. While narrating that he had the sense to duck when he heard the first gunshot, listlessly, he would mourn Mustafa, his 25-year-old driver who took two out of 11 bullets sprayed on his car.

Censorship forces veteran journalist to quit

By Ahmad Noorani (http://www.thenews.com.pk/)

Tuesday, April 22, 2014 
ISLAMABAD: While the establishment’s activities are at a peak to instigate journalists and analysts against the Geo/Jang Group and Pakistan’s top journalist Hamid Mir, who’s lying in a hospital bed after receiving six bullets, at least one journalist, Imtiaz Alam, showed the guts and refused to bow down to any pressure and resigned from his media group for wrongly pressuring him and curbing his freedom of expression.
According to credible sources, the establishment officials are meeting different journalists and analysts and are either convincing them or pressing them to malign and defame the Geo/Jang Group in a way that the real issue — the attack on Hamid Mir — is put on the backburner.

Protecting journalists in Pakistan

By Mazhar AbbasPublished: April 14, 2014

It was a bloody start to 2014 for the journalists in Pakistan when a Larkana-based correspondent of Ab Tak TV, Shan Daher, was shot dead on the eve of New Year. Since January, six media workers had been killed in targeted attacks while over a dozen have already received ‘death threats’, including three anchors.
So, all is not well in Pakistan for journalists and the media houses. The situation is far more alarming and threatening than it has been realised. The risk factor for the media has increased as conflict escalates. Today, the country is caught in the midst of many conflicts including terrorism, sectarianism, separatist movements violence between underworld mafias. Journalists report these stories from the conflict zones without having any training or even understanding of the danger.

American Journalists talk to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari about media issues

15 April 2014 by Jamal Dawoodpoto

A delegation of nine American Journalists called on Pakistan Peoples Party Patron-in-Chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari at the Bilawal House and discussed different issues pertaining to media.

A delegation of nine American journalists called on Pakistan Peoples Party Patron-In-Chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari at Bilawal House and discussed different issues pertaining to the media.

These journalists are on a visit under Pakistan-US Journalist Exchange programme organized by Hawaii-based East-West Center.

Education journalism: Why education is neglected in the media

http://tribune.com.pk/
LAHORE: “Education is one of the most neglected sectors in media, as journalists often consider it boring to report on the subject”, said former education minister Mian Imran Masood at a journalism workshop on Tuesday.
The Ilm-o-Agahi one-day workshop was organized by an NGO and a partner institute of the Centre for International Media Ethics and the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks of the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Ilm Ideas (a three year UK-Aid funded programme). It was a part of an 18-journalism-workshop-series that will be held across Pakistan for education reporters.
Masood said that a lack of authentic information and competing interest of stake holders made it difficult for reporters to follow up on education related policies and issues. He said this also effected investigation of budget allocations.

In crosshairs: Living here, hard for citizens, harder for journalists

http://tribune.com.pk/

ISLAMABAD: Journalists in Pakistan have a very tough job with serious threats to their lives, mostly because the state is too weak to enforce its writ and to arrest a crumbling law-and-order situation, according to a public policy analyst.
“We are all easy targets but more so journalists because they are in the public eye,” Barrister Mahreen Khan, an analyst and TV broadcaster, said during a conference on the role of media and Pakistan’s national security discourse at a local hotel on Monday.
The conference was organised by Strategic Vision Institute (SVI) in collaboration with Konrad-Adenaur-Stiftung (KAS).