Army accused of ‘quietly’ stifling press

Information minister says no complaints about intimidation have been lodged

Pakistan’s military is using fear and intimidation to stifle the media and undermine press freedom, even as overall violence against reporters has fallen, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said yesterday.

The press freedom group said the military had established “lines of control” to pressure media and journalists. Those who were overly critical were attacked, threatened or arrested. “The military has quietly, but effectively, set restrictions on reporting: from barring access to regions, encouraging self-censorship through direct and indirect methods of intimidation, including instigating violence against reporters,” the CPJ said in a report.

The military routinely denies interfering in politics or with the media. Its information wing could not be reached for comment, nor did it respond to text messages seeking comment on the report.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told Reuters that no media complaints about intimidation had been lodged with his ministry but if they were, they would be investigated.

The CPJ spoke to various journalists and media organisations for its report, including Geo News, Pakistan’s most popular television news channel. In April, in the run-up to the general election, cable distributors stopped distributing Geo’s programming, cutting off 80 per cent of households.

At the time, two sources at the broadcaster told Reuters the military had told it to refrain from reporting on various topics including alleged military involvement in the ouster of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

‘Indirect methods’

The Supreme Court forced Sharif from office in July 2017 over his failure to declare some income. The CPJ said while it was hard to document who made the order restricting Geo’s distribution and for what reason, the broadcaster was known to have had disputes with the authorities.

“Geo News’s clashes with authorities started well before April 2018 and exemplify the divide between media houses and the military (and) the growing use of indirect tactics to impose censorship, and the rise of selfcensorship,” it said.

Similarly, the English-language Dawn newspaper has seen its circulation blocked in some places, which the paper’s editor said pointed to military intervention. “They’re clearly not happy with Dawn’s policies, they want it to stay away from certain subjects,” editor Zaffar Abbas told Reuters, adding that non-compliance was met by blocked circulation and cuts in advertising by enterprises linked to the military.

“Some papers are unable to take those pressures,” the CPJ said. Several reporters had been attacked by unidentified men after publishing reports critical of the military, it added.

“People in the military have discovered that there are indirect ways of influencing the press,” CPJ Asia coordinator Steven Butler, who wrote the report, told Reuters.

The English-language Dawn newspaper has seen its circulation blocked in some places, which the paper’s editor said pointed to military intervention.