Your right to know: A new voice for rural journalists

The Rural Media Network Pakistan (RMNP) was established in 2004 and registered as a non-profit organization with the object of assisting the development of independent rural media in Pakistan. This was to be done by conducting training programmes for both male and female journalists, carrying out World Press Freedom Day and freedom of expression seminars, and campaigning to defend and promote the freedom of press.

The RMNP regularly organizes training programmes and seminars in rural centres which address the issues facing the Pakistani media. In particular RMNP has worked for the improvement of professional skills, and to raise rural journalists awareness of professional, social, political, and human rights issues, including those related to the environment.
 
The RMNP collaborates with local press clubs and journalists unions and the Citizens Media Commission of Pakistan on the national level. On the international level it has developed relations with UNESCO, the Commonwealth Journalists Association CJA), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), and the International News Safety Institute (INSI).
 
In addition to capacity building the RMNP is committed to the promotion of the freedom of the press in rural Pakistan. RMNP organises training programmes on basic skills, press freedom, investigative and election reporting, the rights of journalists and journalists ethics. RMNP has played a leading role in promoting the use of the recently introduced access to information laws and is lobbying for improvement of these laws. Urdu translations of these documents have been distributed by RMNP among rural journalists in South Punjab.
 
RMNP is the only organization in rural Pakistan which celebrates World Press Freedom Day every year, and which publishes an annual press freedom report. This year's report was published in and reported on by national and international media. In 2005 , 2006 and 2009 seminars on UNESCO's annual themes were organised. From 1999 to 2004 WPFD seminars were organised by the National Press Union, with the colloboration of the rural Daily Nawa-I-AhmedpurSharqia, now merged in RMNP.
 
RMNP is the only organisation in rural Pakistan which is keeping contact with the international press freedom organisations to promote initiatives that stress the importance of press freedom for democracy and individual and collective liberties. RMNP is active in reporting and publicising crimes against communication professionals in rural Pakistan, and elsewhere.

Freedom of Expression Monthly Newsletter Sadiq News

In 2005 RMNP published Pakistan's first Freedom of Expression newsletter which foreword was written by Mr Javed Jabbar former Federal Minister for Information & Broadcasting. It is a monthly published in the Urdu language, the main language used by journalists in rural Pakistan.

Sadiq News was published with the technical assistance of UNESCO with a ceremony on 19th December 2005, and a seminar on the Freedom of Expression Situation in Pakistan. The Minister of State for the Environment, Government of Pakistan, Malik Mohd Amin Aslam Khan, MP Malik Farooq Azam, 250 journalists, representatives of civil society organizations and regional heads of political parties attended. The first colour edition of FOE Newsletter Sadiq News was distributed among all participants and a report of the launch was posted on the websites of the International Freedom Of Expression Exchange (IFEX), the International Journalists Network (USA), the Commonwealth Press Union (CPU), UNESCO, and several other media organizations.
 
So far RMNP has published 13 issues and distributed them free of cost to press clubs, rural journalists unions, and educational institutions. But financial constraints means that since 2007 only one issue is produced each year, on the eve of World Press Freedom Day (3rd May).
 
FOE Newsletter Sadiq News has become so popular in Pakistan that RMNP received many emails from urban Pakistan asking for it to be published on the web in both Urdu and English, and asking for it distribution by mail. Rural journalists value it so highly they have asked for it to be published fortnightly. RMNP on 26th April 2009 in a ceremony organised with the assistance of UNESCO launched first monthly Online Udru edition of FOE Newsletter Sadiq News which is being distributed free of cost to rural journalists in all the four provinces and Azad Kashmir.
 
World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) has provided the appropriate platform in rural Pakistan to strengthen networks, monitoring, and the exchange of information and strategies on FOE. As a result of RMNP's efforts since 1999 four international organizations, UNESCO, World 

Association of Newspapers (WAN) France, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) USA, and International Press Institute (IPI) Austria recommended that RMNP be enrolled in the IFEX community. For the same reason the World Editors Forum (WEF ) sponsored the editor of FOE Newsletter Sadiq News to its annual congress in Capetown, South Africa in June 2007. And similarly the Commonwealth Journalists Association paid for the editor of the FOE Newsletter Sadiq News to attending its triennial conference in Kuching, Malaysia October 2008.

Hostile Environment Training Offered For Pakistan Journalists

To equip journalists with the skills required to cope with the dangers involved in reporting from hostile and sensitive areas, Rural Media Network Pakistan (RMNP)  has re-launched its training programme for media persons of South Punjab.

In collaboration with UNESCO, these trainings sessions are  focusing  upon print and radio journalists and will enable them to report on conflict constructively and in a manner which does not jeopardize their own well-being.

Through a variety of sessions, the journalists will be sensitised about local social issues and how those local voices need to be incorporated in the media. The second phase of three training sessions will be held in RahimyarKhan and Bahawalpur districts, while the first training workshop will start 21st February in Liaquatpur, district RahimyarKhan.

Earlier three training session were held at  Khanpur, Jatoi and Yaman sub-divisonal head quarters.

Highlighting the background of the training, President RMNP Ehsan Ahmed Khan Sehar said that reporting on conflict requires courage and dedication.

“We are making sure that those who choose such a daring job also have the assurance of their safety,” he said.

He said that these training sessions will endow the journalists working in religious- and feuda- dominated areas with necessary survival mechanisms to continue their work unhindered.

“This initiative will certainly improve the overall condition of media personnel in these areas and will assist them in adopting a set of precautionary measures that are necessary to survive in hostile environments,” he added.

Since January 2011, RMNP has organized nineteen training sessions in different districts of South Punjab, which were attended by more than 400 journalists. Sehar said that Pakistan has a long history of conflicts and presently hostile environments exist in some areas of South Punjab .

“Apart from the nature of the conflict, reporting of the ground realities becomes a daunting task, particularly when the parties of the conflict are altogether acting against the democratic forces including the media personnel/journalists working in these areas.”  said the RMNP President.

He further explained that a team of trainers and resource persons headed by former Research Coordinator, Tokyo University Japan’s Khalid Seed, will conduct a two day long training session in Liaquatpur. Participants will receive training manuals in the beginning of training workshop and a certificate giving ceremony will be held on 22nd February at 5 PM.

Free Speech Under Fire: Muhammad Cartoon Contest Winner Retreats Into Hiding

Nathan Koppel reports: As authorities continue to investigate an attempted attack on a contest to draw the Prophet Muhammad in Texas on Sunday, the winner of the event has retreated into hiding, saying he faces persistent death threats.

Bosch Fawstin netted $12,500 for winning the contest’s grand prize as well as the “People’s Choice Award” for his drawing depicting Muhammad wielding a sword and saying, “you can’t draw me!”

In an interview on Tuesday, the cartoonist was vague about his whereabouts, saying only that he lives somewhere in the U.S.

[read the full text here, at WSJ]

“I don’t want to say where,” Mr. Fawstin said, also declining to say his age. “There are Muslims out there who want to kill me.”

He has drawn a comic book called “Pigman,” featuring a hero who battles “pigotry” and his arch nemesis, SuperJihad. He said he has also drawn several dozen cartoon renderings of the Islamic prophet.

“I do it because we have been told we can’t,” he said. “I’m not just provoking people for the hell of it.…Provocation is freedom of speech—it’s not separate from it.”

The Muhammad art competition in Garland, Texas, was hosted by the American Freedom Defense Initiative. Some 200 people attended the event according to a participant… (read more)

WSJ

Write to Nathan Koppel at nathan.koppel@wsj.com

Son accepts award on behalf of slain journalist Malik Mumtaz Khan

Written by Rural Media Network Pakistan

Slain tribal journalist Malik Mumtaz Khan’s son Malik Suleman Khan received the RMNP Sadiq Press Freedom Award 2014 and prize money of Rs 60,000 in an event organized by the Rural Media Network Pakistan (RMNP) at Punjab College AhmedpurEast on Sunday evening.

The ceremony was co-chaired by President RMNP Ehsan Ahmed Sehar and intellectual Hassan Askar Sheikh, with Ex-PPP MNA Arif Aziz Sheikh as the chief guest.

The former President of the Press Club Miranshah, North Waziristan, Malik Mumtaz Khan was shot dead by unidentified armed persons on February 27, 2013 while he was on his way to home.

Speakers at the awards ceremony – President BUJ Majeed Gill, Ex­PPP MNA Arif Aziz Sheikh, Deputy Director Information Bahawalpr Nasir Hameed, PPP leader Mohd Ali Ahsan, PML(N) leaders Mian Mohd Younas, Mehar Abdul Rehman, PML(QA) leader Salahuddin Jeelani, Ex­Chairman Municipal Committee Mian Ilyas Ayaz, and journalists Zafar Iqbal Minhas, Iftikhar Alvi and Ahmed Khan Babar – each paid rich tribute to Malik Mumtaz Khan, and offered their condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. They demanded the government to arrest the killers without further delay and give compensation to Malik Mumtaz Khan’s heirs.

Majeed Gill, President of the Bahawalpur Union of Journalists, presented the RMNP shield to Malik Suleman Khan, acknowledging his slain father Malik Mumtaz Khan’s courage and dedication with the profession. Hassan Askari Sheikh presented PKR 60 000 sponsored by World Association of Newspapers & News publishers (WAN-IFRA).

Malik Suleman Khan thanked RMNP for selecting his slain father for the WAN-IFRA sponsored award. He complained that despite the PKR 1Million announcement made by former Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari as compensation for the killing, not a single penny has been paid.

Similarly he reported that his father’s employer Jang-Geo group neither accommodated the family nor offered him a job, despite his having the required qualification. He hoped that the RMNP would expand its activities in near future to encourage victimized media persons in both rural and urban areas.



The President of RMNP, Ehsan Ahmed Khan Sehar, said that Pakistan is ranked 158 out of 180 countries in this year’s World Press Freedom Index and has one of the highest murder rates for journalists. He stated that there was almost no space for freedom of expression in the country, which provides a free playing field for law enforcement authorities and extremist religious and militant groups to act as they please.

President RMNP said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had announced the appointment of a Commission for the protection of journalists in a meeting with a CPJ delegation in Islamabad, but no further action has been taken so far. No mechanisms have been developed to stop the attacks on media houses. Political parties, pressure groups and religious militant groups continuously attack media houses and journalists in an effort to dictate their policies, he added. He revealed a report that of 250 journalists from seven agencies and six frontier regions, one third have already moved to other areas and quit journalism. Journalists in FATA are working for multiple organizations – most as correspondents, freelancers and stringers. Sadly, not all have the luxury of being employed under a formal contract.

Also attending the award ceremony were Deputy Director Information Bahawalpur Division Nasir Hameed, Bahawalpur National Awami Party (BNAP) Central President Mian Ilyas Ayaz , District President PML(QA) Syed Salahuddin Ahmed Jeelani, District General Secretary PPP Bahawalpur Muhammad Ali Ahsan, Chairman Market Committee andPresident Markazi Anjuman Mian Mohd Younas, PML(N) leader Mehar Abdul Rehman Anjum, Professor Shehzad Ahmed Khan, and the presidents of Press clubs from Tehsil Sadar Bahawalpur, Tranda Muhammad Panah, Chanigoth, Mubarakpur, Khanqah Sharif, AhmedpurEast, and Samasatta.

President Ehsan Ahmed Sehar also announced that RMNP will give another press freedom award on May 3, 2015, on the eve of World Press Freedom Day.

Second Anniversary, On Its Way!

By Rida Zaidi

'Surf Safely... prohibited for viewer ship from within Pakistan!' This is the message that pops up on computer screens when you try to access You Tube that has been banned in the country for the past two year.It was September 17, 2012 when then Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf ordered the Information Ministry to block the world's largest videos sharing website in the country. The You Tube ban is a punishment (presumably to the site) for hosting a trailer of the blasphemous film, The Innocence of Muslims. Pakistani internet campaigners, mostly younger users, have been lobbying against the removal of the entire site by claiming it an act of "state censorship" and, therefore is despotic and tyrannical. Although other Islamic countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh also initially imposed the ban, it currently remains in effect only in Pakistan.

So on September 17,2014 we will celebrate the second anniversary of YouTube ban. But the question is that what changes and difficulties it created for the youth of Pakistan who were frequent users of YouTube? As YouTube was a major source of entertainment and a platform to find new music. Some youngsters are of the view that with the ban on YouTube state has violated their right of freedom of information. Youth is struggling as other than the controversial material there is also a wealth of truly helpful and educational material available on the site. YouTube has also been noted as being one of the most famous social media platforms for showcasing new and creative work for all age ranges. YouTube contains step-by-step tutorials about various techniques for painting, sculpting, and art projects etc. YouTube users are able to access full class lectures on a variety of subjects. The new emerging talent that includes singers, bands, musicians can upload video based on their free of cast and can promote their talent as the users of the site are spread all over the globe. So, it show that youth is seriously facing number of problems being not able to access all this. The fact is that this generation depends on and favours visual and virtual media (preferably brief), rather than written and physical sources of information.

In the meanwhile, citizens are still waiting for access to return. Some are able to open YouTube through proxies, but most proxies are unreliable and face connection issues. Those who do not have the patience to wait for the proxies to load are content to wait for the ban to be lifted. There are other sites for artists and musicians to upload and promote their work, including Vimeo and Dailymotion. However, these sites are still much less popular than YouTube, and enjoy less viewership.

Here everyone must be thinking that what is the solution of the problem? It's really simple. Interstitials were offered to Pakistan just like they were offered to Bangladesh, which accepted the solution last year and ended the ban.YouTube has already applied this, Pakistan doesn't even have to request it - it's been done. All that remains is for the government to make the decision to un-ban YouTube and move forward. As now that the controversial video is no longer on the site, people question the reason for the ban.

The world is changing more rapidly than ever before due to increasing technological advances. A decade ago YouTube did not exist; today it is reshaping how people communicate. So, how is life without YouTube? You know how it is with technology - once something becomes so ubiquitous and so universally used, it is simply impossible to imagine life without it. And how did we survive without YouTube? And for how long we have to survive without it? Only the God knows.

Pakistan Censors VOA

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan slammed the government Thursday for stopping three human rights activists from leaving the country to attend a conference in New York.

In a written press release, HRCP called it “ridiculous” that the government would bar travel in order to censor someone’s point of view.

One of the activists, 73-year-old Abdul Qadeer Baloch — known as Mama [Uncle] Qadeer — made headlines last year when he walked a grueling 2,000 kilometers from Quetta to the capital, Islamabad, with a group of other activists to raise awareness about enforced disappearances in the restive Balochistan province.

He planned to travel to New York with Farzana Majeed, fellow member of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, and activist Faiqa, who goes by only one name. They had been invited by the Sindh Academic and Cultural Society of North America to attend a March 7 conference on alleged human rights violations in Balochistan and Sindh provinces.

Majeed said she was told by officials of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) of Pakistan that her and Qadeers' names had been added to the exit control list, used to block people from travelling abroad, an hour before their arrival at the airport. Faiqa said she was stopped for traveling with them. Majeed was also told that a report had been filed with the police accusing her and Qadeer of “anti-state activities.”

Ministry of Interior officials, reached by VOA, said they were not authorized to speak on this issue and could not find someone who was.

An English language daily, the Dawn newspaper, reported that FIA Director Shahid Hayat confirmed Qadeer’s name was added to the exit control list.

History of grievances

Balochistan, a western Pakistani province bordering Iran, has a history of grievances against Pakistan’s central government that has led to several armed insurgencies. Baloch rights activists complain their province has been denied development and growth while natural resources extracted from the province have been used to develop other regions, particularly Pakistan’s most populous province, Punjab.

The activists maintain that those who raise their voices about these topics face the wrath of the country’s security agencies.

In a public statement last year, Amnesty International wrote: “The Frontier Corps and other state security forces have been widely implicated in enforced disappearances, extra-judicial executions and other human rights violations in the province for several years.”

The Frontier Corps is a paramilitary force used to maintain law and order in Balochistan due to the lack of an adequately developed provincial police.

An international conference on disappearances in Asia, held in Islamabad last month, adopted a resolution that expressed “alarm” that enforced and involuntary disappearances are continuing unabated in many Asian countries. Delegates of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the Philippines attended the conference. 

The United Nations office of human rights has urged the Pakistani government several times to investigate reports of enforced disappearances and other human rights violations, particularly in Balochistan. In 2011, then-U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed alarm at the “extrajudicial killings, abductions, and disappearances of minority leaders and political activists in Baluchistan.”

The U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances visited Pakistan at the invitation of the government in 2012. In its report, it expressed concern at the “pattern” of involuntary or enforced disappearances and at allegations that “law enforcement agencies in conjunction with intelligence agencies” were involved.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the government to recover victims of enforced disappearances in 2013, but activists complain of lack of action on the order.

Security failures

Meanwhile, security agencies deny charges of human rights violations and insist they are working in a difficult security situation to keep law and order in a province that has seen widespread militant activity, including ethnic and religious violence.

Many young men considered “missing,” they say, often get involved with religious extremists and leave without informing their families. Others get involved with armed groups and become victims of turf warfare. Still others are picked up because they are involved in “terrorist activities” or collude with Pakistan’s rival India for their separatist agenda. These agencies point to varied violent attacks to show how many different kinds of groups are operating in the region that are involved in human rights violations.

An attack by Taliban militants on two air force bases in the provincial capital Quetta last year left more than 10 militants dead and a dozen or so security personnel injured.

The Shi’ite Hazara community has often been a target of attacks claimed by Sunni militant groups. A separatist group, Baloch Liberation Army, claimed responsibility for a 2013 attack that burned down the two-story house in which Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah spent his last days.

In 2010, a constitutional amendment was passed, granting more autonomy to provinces. It was followed by the election of a middle class leader from a progressive political party as the head of Balochistan government in 2013. These raised hopes for change. However, the Balochistan government has come under increased criticism by Baloch nationalist leaders for “failure” to improve the security situation in the province.

Meanwhile, Balochistan activists such as Mama Qadeer, whose son was picked up in 2009, and whose dead body was found in 2011 with signs of torture, and Farzana Majeed, whose brother remains missing after a 2009 disappearance, are waiting to find out why they have been denied the right to travel and what charges have been filed against them.