Dear Friends,
Here are some news and comments from Pakistan, India and other countries -- after a shut-down of private TV News channels in Pakistan by the Musharraf regime. Please, put some facts and comments on your Web sites to help our Pakistani journalists friends to survive the repressions and to reopen their broadcasting to the Nation and worldwide
Best regards
David Dastych
Owner and operator of David's Media Agency
Warsaw, Poland
Here is a translation of Faiz's poem "Bol" that we posted today:
Speak, for your lips are yet free;
Speak, for your tongue is still your own;
Your lissom body yours alone;
Speak, your life is still your own.
Look into the blacksmith's forge:
The flame blazes, the iron's red;
Locks unfasten open-mouthed,
Every chain's link springing wide.
Speak, a little time suffices
Before the tongue, the body die.
Speak, the truth is still alive;
Speak: say what you have to say.
by Sahil Nagpal
Journalists, lawyers, political workers and civil society activists have staged protest demonstrations against curbs on the media especially shutting down of Geo News and ARY OneWorld in all major cities and towns of Pakistan.
Responding to a call, given by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalist (PFUJ) and the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ), hundreds of protestors participated in the demonstrations against the government for shutting down the transmission.
Speakers termed the closure of Geo TV and another channel as the economic murder of hundreds of journalists and other staff.
Hamid Mir, Executive Editor of the Geo News, said the state security agencies were coercing the media men through various tactics. On the other hand, the government was pressurising the independent media with the help of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and PEMRA.
Meanwhile, the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) and the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors Council (CPNE) have also noted with alarm the rapidly deteriorating environment of freedom of expression and freedom of press in Pakistan.
The APNS and the CPNE in a joint statement have said that the recent taking off the air of Geo and ARY news channels by the Dubai Government is viewed by all parts of the press, as a serious blow to any hopes for improvement in the situation.
The joint statement stated that the single most important step that needs to be taken today by the government is an urgent restoration of all television news channels in Pakistan.
The APNS and the CPNE are firmly of the view that freedom of the print media cannot be separated from the freedom of expression within the electronic media.
Since the same groups of editors and journalists comprise the work force of the entire press any blow sustained by a part of the press will cause irreparable damage to the rest of the media, The News reported.
RIUJ President Afzal Butt said after placing restriction on the print media, now the government has started to shut down the electronic media.
"But journalists will not allow the government to shut down the TV channels and impose curbs on the media through censorship, " he added.
The protesters said that on the one hand the government was claiming to be a champion of freedom of expression, but on the other, independent TV channels were being banned.
The Association of TV Journalists secretary announced that a 'candlelit protest demo' will be held outside the Geo offices on Monday.
He requested all media organisations, journalists, friends and civil society organisations to participate in the demonstration to express their solidarity and come along with candles in their hands. (ANI)
"Go, Musharraf, go," shouted more than 1,000 Pakistani journalists and civil society members in unison as they protested the government's move to shut down two major private Urdu news channels based in Dubai.
The protesters gathered in front of the GEO Television office and shouted slogans against President General Pervez Musharraf for shutting down the two channels, GEO and ARY.
These and other news channels were put off air in Pakistan by cable operators on November 3 when the president imposed emergency in the country.
This was possibly for the first time in Pakistan that journalists held protests for so long - it went on for four hours.
Holding placards, banners and waving black flags, they shouted, "Your show is over Musharraf, go Musharraf go".
Protesters also took a dig at Musharraf's perceived proximity with the United States. A placard held by a journalist read, "Bye bye Busharraf". Another read: "Negroponte Out", referring to US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte who yesterday called on Musharraf to discuss the political situation in Pakistan.
Media curbs
The angry journalists, many of whom were joined by their family members, said they would continue their protests against Musharraf till TV channels were restored and restrictions on the media were lifted.
On Thursday, the government allowed two international and two national news channels to telecast through cable in the country while on Friday midnight it completely shut down operations of ARY and GEO channels.
The two television networks, operating from ground stations in Dubai, were asked by officials to suspend their transmissions by Friday midnight.
The managements of the two blacked out channels said they were simply asked by the UAE authorities to shut down their operations midnight Friday.
"No reason was given to our office in Dubai for shutting down the channel, but the orders were served," GEO TV senior editor Ghazi Salahuddin said.
Well-known GEO TV anchor Hamid Mir said they would continue to protest until their channel was back on air. The journalists would not compromise with the government and would not take any diktats.
"We are an independent media outlet and would continue to act according to our conscience," Mir said. There were no negotiations with the government, he added. The GEO TV management will organise a protest rally tomorrow from its office in Rawalpindi to Constitution Avenue in Islamabad.
Dubai urged to reverse decision, taken under pressure from Musharraf, to suspend broadcasting by two Pakistani TV stations
Reporters Without Borders is shocked by the complete interruption in Dubai of the broadcasts of two Pakistani TV stations, Geo News and Ary One World, which have offices in Dubai. Geo News said the decision was preceded by constant pressure on the Dubai authorities from President Pervez Musharraf. The press freedom organisation calls on the emir of Dubai not to bow to the pressure and to allow the two station to resume broadcasting.
"Pressure by Gen. Musharraf, a notorious press freedom predator, on the Dubai authorities constitutes outrageous interference," Reporters Without Borders said. "Not content with silencing Geo TV and Ary One in Pakistan, he has gone so far as to get a foreign government to suspend the two stations. We urge the emir of Dubai, in the name of press freedom and free enterprise, to rescind this decision at once. We also extend our support to the staff of the two stations."
Satellite reception of Geo News and Ary One World was terminated at 1 a.m. today in Dubai after the authorities effectively forbid the stations to broadcast. Hamid Mir of Geo News told Reporters Without Borders that, late yesterday, the emirate's authorities gave the station two hours to stop broadcasting, without offering any explanation.
The staff of both stations blame the action of Dubai's authorities on President Musharraf, who has been pressuring the government to do this since declaring a state of emergency in Pakistan on 3 November.
Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press freedom throughout the world. It has nine national sections (Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). It has representatives in Bangkok, London, New York, Tokyo and Washington. And it has more than 120 correspondents worldwide.
© Reporters Without Borders 2007
David M. Dastych——
Bio and Archives
David Dastych passed away Sept.11, 2010.
See:David Dastych Dead at 69
David was a former Polish intelligence operative, who served in the 1960s-1980s and was a double agent for the CIA from 1973 until his arrest in 1987 by then-communist Poland on charges of espionage. Dastych was released from prison in 1990 after the fall of communism and in the years since has voluntarily helped Western intelligence services with tracking the nuclear proliferation black market in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. After a serious injury in 1994 confined him to a wheelchair, Dastych began a second career as an investigative journalist covering terrorism, intelligence and organized crime.
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