Journalist arrested, detained overnight

Dilawar Jan, a reporter in the Peshawar bureau of the daily "The News", was picked up by intelligence agency personnel from his office on the evening of 28 April 2009 in a bid to force him to disclose the source of news filed by him about an impending military operation in Buner. He was released on the morning of 29 April after refusing to be pressured into disclosing his source.

Jan told PPF that three personnel of an intelligence agency came to "The News" Peshawar office around 7:00 p.m. (local time) and started questioning him about the source of a news item which he had filed about a military operation in Buner.

Jan said that when he refused to disclose the source, the agency personnel took him to their office and interrogated him about the source of the news. He said he told them that as a responsible journalist it would be unethical to identify his source.

After some time, they blind-folded him and transferred him to another place for further interrogation, but he stuck to his position. Jan said that they did threaten him, but did not torture him. "Ultimately, they left me near my office," he said.

After one hour of Jan's detention, two of his journalist colleagues, Bukhar Shah and Mushtaq Yusufzai, went to the intelligence agency office to seek Jan's release. The agency personnel demanded that they disclose the name of Jan's news source, but they also refused. After waiting there until past midnight, they returned unsuccessfully.

The group editor of "The News", Shaheen Sehbai, has in a statement urged the security officials and the army not to target journalists if they cannot keep their operations a secret. They should look inwards and stop information leaks in their system, instead of victimizing media persons. He said Jan had done nothing unprofessional or irresponsible.

On 29 April, a meeting held at the Peshawar Press Club attended by members of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and the Khyber Union of Journalists (KHUJ) strongly condemned the harassment of the journalist.

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Coverage, resources available on media in Fiji

Anyone interested in following developments on the deteriorating media environment in Fiji can access a variety of Web sites providing media coverage with different perspectives than those offered by the mainstream press.

Foreign and local news media in Fiji have come under harsh controls imposed by the political regime since April 10. According to Pacific Media Watch, the regime gagged Radio Australia broadcasting repeater stations in Fiji, imposed censorship and intimidated, detained and deported journalists.

The following Web sites are operated by students and staff of the Pacific Media Centre (PMC) of the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in New Zealand.

Pacific Media Centre News Blog
Pacific Media Watch
PMC on YouTube
Pacific Media Centre websiteCafe Pacific

Police fail to arrest newsman’s killers

Local journalists and different political organizations took out a protest rally here on Monday from local press club to protest against the police failure to arrest the killers of late Journalist Zubair Ahmed Mujahid and threats of dire consequences given to local journalist Rashid Saleem.

Protesters led by senior journalist Saleem Azad, carried banners and placards, marched through main roads while they raised slogans against the police and strongly condemned the threats of dire consequences given by unknown persons to journalist Rashid Saleem.

They reached at market chowk where speaking at the protesters Saleem Azad, Rashid Saleem, Mehmood Sultan Chandio, Moulana Mufti Shareef Saeedi, Javed Junejo, Moulana Hafeezur Rehman Faiz, Asghar Narejo , Zila Naib Nazim Dr Zafar Ahmed Kamali and others have strongly condemned the threats of dire consequences given to local journalist Rashid Saleem and demanded the district administration to ensure arresting of the culprits involved in murder of journalist Zubair Ahmed Mujahid.

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Reporter dies as a result of shooting injuries

Reporters Without Borders is appalled to learn Wasi Ahmed, a newspaper reporter based in Khuzdar, in the southwestern province of Balochistan, died on 16 April 2009 in a Karachi hospital as a result of the injuries he received in a shooting on 11 April. TV reporter Muhammad Khan Adil was injured in a bombing on 10 April in the same province, where tension is high following the murder of three Baloch leaders.

"The abduction and murder of three Baloch leaders and the constant threats against Baloch journalists and human rights activists are unacceptable, but they must not be used as grounds for acts of revenge against the press," Reporters Without Borders said.

"We urge all parties, above all the Baloch armed groups and the security forces, to show the utmost restraint and not treat the media as targets," the press freedom organisation added.
"There is an urgent need for the government to restore calm in Balochistan. To this end, it must not allow human rights violations to go unpunished."

The Khuzdar correspondent of the Quetta-based "Balochistan Express" daily newspaper, Ahmed was shot in the stomach in front of a newsstand on 11 April. The newspaper vendor was also injured in the shooting. It is suspected that the attack was carried out by a Baloch armed separatist group and that Ahmed, who was from Punjab province, was the target.
Adil, a reporter for Dunya TV, was injured by a roadside bomb on 10 April.

This latest violence against journalists in Balochistan comes less than two months after Jan Muhammad Dashti, the owner and editor of the Baloch daily "Asaap", was seriously injured in a shooting as he was driving to work in the provincial capital, on 23 February.

A Quetta-based journalist told Reporters Without Borders: "Baloch journalists are targeted by the security forces while journalists from the Punjab are targeted by Baloch separatist groups. We are trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea."

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Complicated issue of plot allotments in Islamabad!

• By Muhammad Ahmad Noorani
  IslamabadHow plots are being allotted in posh and expensive sectors of Islamabad is an interesting phenomena and new facts are throwing light on this process.
  
  In one case the officer who allots plots to others has himself acquired an expensive plot, and says he has the right to do so.Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) Director General Sher Afzal, however, said that the plot was allotted to him in accordance with rules.
  
  But interestingly before he got the plot in Sector I-8, the FGEHF Executive Committee offered plots to CDA chairman and all the six CDA members in other sectors.But these offers were not meant to bribe CDA for getting the plot in I-8 sector, Mr Sher Afzal told ‘The News’.
  
  According to official documents, Sher Afzal, who is responsible for allotting plots to federal government employees from junior cadres to federal secretaries, is a grade-19 officer, who was appointed as the foundation’s DG in January this year but had joined the FGEHF six months back. No plots were available then in sector I-8 with FGEHF.
  
  CDA provides required plots to FGEHF in sector I-8 measuring 600 square yards to officers in Grade 20 and above but still a Grade-19 officer got one because he is head of the FGEHF.
  
  Currently FGEHF is making allotments to federal government employees in sector G-14. However, according to DG Sher Afzal, plots could also be allotted in other sectors if available.
  
  The location wise value of plots in the capital city Islamabad is very different from other cities as according to real estate experts the prices of plots existing in luxurious sectors like I-8 are extremely high than those existing in far flung sectors like G-14.
  
  According to one such expert the price of 600 square yard plot in sector I-8 is Rs30 million while that a plot with the same measurement in sector G-14 is merely Rs3 million to Rs4 million.
  
  When Sher Afzal was asked that plots to other federal government employees were being allotted in sectors G-13 and G-14, how could he allot himself a plot in sector I-8, he replied that as plots were available in sector I-8 so he got one.Asked that according to information with ‘The News’ plots in sector I-8 were in fact not available and that he had offered 7 plots to top CDA officials including CDA Chairman Tariq Mehmood, member finance Saeed-ur-Rehman, member administration SM Farooqi, member P&D Syed Tanveer Hussain Bokhari, member engineering Tahir Shamshad, member environment Mazhar Hussain and member Estate Brigadier (r) Asad Munir and in return demanded plots in Sector I-8, Sher Afzal replied that these plots were offered to these CDA officials, but this offer was never meant to bribe them to create more plots in I-8.The DG, FGEHF told this correspondent last Wednesday that CDA chairman and CDA members had accepted the offer and were ready to get their plots.
  
  However, on Monday he said that all the members and chairman have now refused to accept the offer.‘The News’ had also learnt reliably that all the CDA officials were ready to take the plots, but when they came to know the scandalous nature of the whole episode and learnt that media had started probing it, they dropped the idea to take these plots.CDA members Briggadier (r) Asad Munir and Saeed-ur-Rehman told ‘The News’ that they were not availing the plots offered by FGEHF.
  
  Sources close to members SM Bokhari and Tahir Shamshad say that these two members are also not willing to avail the offer. Syed Tanveer Hussain Bokhari was of the view that he didn’t avail any plot so far, but offer of FGEHF was not in a good spirit and FGEHF) should not lay ambiguous conditions for it.Mazhar Hussain was of the view that though he has already taken a plot back in 1985 from CDA, he will only avail this opportunity if there is nothing wrong legally in availing it.
  
  “If I will avail the offer, I will avail publicly and not secretly,” Mazhar said.CDA Chairman Tariq Mehmood told ‘The News’ that he was never officially offered a plot by the FGEHF. “Verbally some officials offered me a plot, which I refused and will not accept it,” he said.While giving his response to ‘The News’, Sher Afzal said: “Allotments of plots to the officers of FGEHF are made on the basis of one per cent quota only to those employees who have served 10 years in government and have served in FGEHF for not less than six months. In my case I have more than 13 years service and I have completed six months of mandatory service in FGEHF.
  
  No deviation from the rules and law has been made in my case. Everyday we issue dozens of allotments to federal government employees, and if one allotment has been made as per rules in my favour, it is not a major event.” Sher further added: “Executive committee of housing foundation in its 105th meeting has confirmed category-I allotment in my favour.” Asked that he was only a Grade-19 officer and could not get a Category-2 plot, how he had managed to get a plot for Grade-20 and higher officials, Sher Afzal replied that the Executive Committee had allotted him the plot in Sector I-8.
  
  On the other hand head of the executive committee and federal secretary housing and works GM Sikandar, while talking to ‘The News’ said that executive committee never allotted any plot to Sher Afzal in sector I-8. “He may himself have allotted the plot to himself,” Sikandar said.Another member of the executive committee, Syed Tanveer Hussain Bokhari, who is also member planning CDA, said that executive committee members were not aware that Sher Afzal was in grade-19 rather they were considering him a grade-20 employee as he was DG, FGEHF which is a grade-20 post.
  
  He too said that executive committee has nothing to do with the allotment to Sher Afzal in sector I-8. He said that he was even unaware that whether executive committee has permitted Sher to get a category-I plot.
  
  Click here to view the source
  
  While doing the story, the reporter spoke to Mr Nazir Naji, who abused the reporter. The conversation was recorded and splitted in three files, links are available below:
  
  Conversation-One Conversation-Two Conversation-Three