PAKISTAN’S PRESS SAYS MILITARY IS CHOKING OFF FREE SPEECH
▶ As polls loom, newspaper started by nation’s founder claims pressure is on to mould a compliant media
Each night for more than 70 years, copies of Dawn, Pakistan’s oldest and most widely read English-language newspaper, have rolled off presses bound for all four corners of the country.
The Karachi-based title was started by the nation’s founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and has long been influential. Even in the internet age it sells as many as 125,000 copies a day.
Yet for the past month, as vans have driven out of three production sites, it has been unclear how many of those papers will reach readers.
The newspaper’s management says distribution has been sabotaged, its hawkers intimidated and journalists threatened in a concerted campaign that should “concern all free-thinking and democratic citizens of the country”.
Dawn’s troubles are part of a wider confrontation between Pakistan’s media and parts of the security establishment, analysts and media freedom campaigners say, as a general election approaches.
The July 25 vote will be the first time the country has held three consecutive elections without a coup, but the military maintains considerable sway and is accused of using its weight to ensure a biddable government takes power.
In the past year, media critics of the military have found themselves abducted, taken off air and threatened. The long-running animosity from senior generals towards ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif – they toppled his first government in a coup in 1999 – has put focus on those who lean towards his Pakistan Muslim League or give him a platform.
“It’s been a long process of slowly ratcheting up pressure, mainly coming from the military to shape the coverage that’s coming out,” said Steven Butler, Asia co-ordinator of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
“The military is very sensitive about what is written about it and very strongly against Nawaz Sharif and appears to be taking action against his party.”
He said after censorship under military rule, until recently Pakistan had appeared to be on a path, albeit slow and bumpy, towards greater press freedom.
That had now become “an environment where there’s a ratcheting up of pressure through the owners of media properties and selective attacks on journalists”.
Mr Sharif’s difficulties mounted on Thursday with a Supreme Court ruling against his party that barred one of his former ministers from the election. That came a day after an election commission tribunal said the outgoing Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who succeeded Mr Sharif, could not contest his home constituency, although he will stand in another seat in Islamabad.
Mr Sharif and his party have said the cases and other measures are a pre-election attempt to tip the scales in favour of opposition politician and cricket hero Imran Khan.
Dawn says its troubles began with a October 2016 report that the civilian government led by Mr Sharif had confronted the military over its alleged sheltering of militants. The stance risked making Pakistan an international outcast, civilian leaders had reportedly told generals. That piece prompted a furious backlash.
Mr Sharif was ousted last July after the Panama Papers leak linked his children to offshore companies. And he was disqualified from office when a court ruled he was dishonest in not disclosing his earnings from a Dubai company in his nomination papers.
Pressure on Dawn grew last month when Mr Sharif suggested in an interview with the newspaper that Pakistani militants were behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Since then, distribution has been disrupted across parts of the country, management says. Newspapers have been blocked from military areas, copies confiscated and news vendors intimidated.
Hameed Haroon, the former executive of Dawn Media Group, said: “Clearly big institutions are involved. Civilian officials of the government are not involved, therefore we have reasons to believe elements of the military are taking this action.”
The newspaper is not taking the disruption without a fight.
“One of the casualties of civilmilitary discord and strife in this country has been a free media that has embraced constitutional civilian supremacy,” an editorial said on Wednesday. “It appears that elements within or sections of the state do not believe they have a duty to uphold the constitution and the freedoms it guarantees.”
A message this week to frustrated subscribers who may not be getting their copies likened their struggle to the censorship faced by Jinnah as he campaigned before independence.
Other outlets under pressure have included Pakistan’s most popular television station, Geo TV. The broadcaster was largely taken off cable networks at the end of March and returned only after it was widely reported to have agreed to stop favourable coverage of Mr Sharif and halt attacks on the military.
Individual journalists have also faced action.
Gul Bukhari, a British-Pakistani journalist who has criticised the army, was abducted by unnamed men this month in Lahore. She was released unharmed hours later.
Marvi Sirmed, a journalist and human rights activist who has promoted friendlier ties with India and criticised militant groups with links to the security forces, this month said she had returned from holiday to find her home ransacked. Laptops and documents were taken, but not jewellery.
Pakistan’s army denies it is involved in intimidation.
“We are the strong supporters of democracy,” Gen Asif Ghafoor told the Associated Press this week. “But the army is the most organised and capable institution with the ability to assist.”