PM Shehbaz Sharif slams Imran Khan after media watchdog downgrades Pakistan

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif mentioned on Wednesday that Pakistan’s 12-point plunge on the Press Freedom Index throughout final yr has not solely earned his predecessor Imran Khan a shameful title of “press freedom predator” but in addition positioned the nation’s democracy in unhealthy gentle.

In its newest index of 180 international locations, the Reporters Without Borders, a world non-governmental organisation working to safeguard the suitable to data, positioned Pakistan at 157, evaluating 145 in 2021 and 139 in 2018, when Khan, a cricketer-turned-politician, assumed workplace.

“Pakistan fell 12 points on Press Freedom Index during last year of Imran Khan’s govt & 18 points during his tenure. It not only earned him shameful title of ‘press freedom predator’ but also placed our democracy in bad light,” Sharif tweeted, a day after the World Press Freedom Day.

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Sharif, who efficiently led the Opposition events to oust Khan in a no-confidence movement in Parliament final month, vowed that his authorities was totally dedicated to freedom of press and speech in Pakistan, a coup-prone nation.

In its report, the RSF painted a bleak image of media freedom in Pakistan, rating the nation 157 out of 180 with a rating of 37.99.

Pakistan’s Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb, in her message, tweeted that the last word conscience of society is a accountable conscientious free press and its contribution is transparency, accountability in addition to a wholesome discourse with excessive requirements of ethics and journalism.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken additionally mentioned that restrictions on media retailers and civil society undermine Pakistan’s picture in addition to its capability to progress.

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“We are aware of significant restrictions on media outlets and civil society, more broadly in Pakistan,” Blinken instructed reporters at a information convention.

At least 86 instances of assaults and violations in opposition to media and its practitioners, together with journalists, occurred in Pakistan over the course of 1 yr between May 2021 and April 2022, The Express Tribune quoted a report as saying.

While the general variety of documented violations within the previous yr has gone down a number of notches, there’s a persevering with development of concentrating on journalists working for digital media, in keeping with a analysis and evaluation report by the Freedom Network, a Pakistan-based media rights watchdog that tracks violations in opposition to journalists and assaults on freedom of expression regularly.

Pakistan’s highly effective Army, which has dominated the nation for greater than half of its 75 years of existence, has hitherto wielded appreciable energy on issues of safety and overseas coverage.

Ever since its founding in 1947, Pakistan has oscillated between civil society’s quest for better press freedom and the political and navy elite’s fixed reassertion of in depth management over the media, the Reporters Without Borders mentioned in its report.

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Despite modifications in political energy, a recurring theme is clear: political events in opposition help press freedom however are first to limit it when in energy, it mentioned.

Pakistan’s media regulators are straight managed by the federal government and systematically put defence of the chief authorities earlier than the general public’s proper to data. As the navy has tightened its grip on civilian establishments, protection of navy and intelligence company interference in politics has develop into off limits for journalists, it mentioned.

“Pakistan is one of the world’s deadliest countries for journalists, with three to four murders each year that are often linked to cases of corruption or illegal trafficking and which go completely unpunished, the report said.

“Any journalist who crosses the crimson strains dictated by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) an intelligence company offshoot is liable to be the goal of in-depth surveillance that might result in abduction and detention for various lengths of time within the state’s prisons or much less official jails,” it said.

Furthermore, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s leading military intelligence agency, is prepared to silence any critic once and for all,” the report added.