Amid a raging controversy over attempt on life of a senior Pakistani TV anchor, a leading rights group today asked Pakistan to probe its own military and spy agencies and ensure that those responsible for rights violations against journalists are brought to justice.
It will send a powerful signal to those who target journalists that they no longer have free reign, Amnesty International said.
Journalists in Pakistan live under the constant threat of killings, harassment and other violence from all sides, including intelligence agencies, political parties and armed groups like the Taliban, it said in a report released here.
Attacks on journalists in Pakistan show how authorities have almost completely failed to stem human rights abuses against media workers or to bring those responsible to account, it said.
Recent attack on leading Pakistani TV anchor Hamid Mir has triggered raging debate on the safety and security of journalists in Pakistan.
Mir, 47, who faced threats from multiple quarters here including the Taliban, was shot at in Karachi by unidentified gunmen on April 19.
Amnesty International has documented 34 cases of journalists being killed in Pakistan in response to their work since the restoration of democratic rule in 2008, but only in one case have the perpetrators been brought to justice.
But these killings are just the most brutal statistic - many more journalists have been threatened, harassed, abducted, tortured or escaped assassination attempts in the same period, it said.
"Pakistan's media community is effectively under siege. Journalists, in particular those covering national security issues or human rights, are targeted from all sides in a disturbing pattern of abuses carried out to silence their reporting," said David Griffiths, Amnesty International's Deputy Asia-Pacific Director.
"The constant threat puts journalists in an impossible position, where virtually any sensitive story leaves them at risk of violence from one side or another."
Griffiths said the government has promised to improve the dire situation for journalists, including by establishing a public prosecutor tasked with investigating attacks against journalists. "But few concrete steps have been taken."
"A critical step will be for Pakistan to investigate its own military and intelligence agencies and ensure that those responsible for human rights violations against journalists are brought to justice. This will send a powerful signal to those who target journalists that they no longer have free reign" Griffiths stressed.
Amnesty International said its report is based on extensive field research into over 70 cases and interviews with over 100 media workers in Pakistan.
