Throughout the year General Pervez Musharraf's military government repeatedly proclaimed its attachment to press freedom. Yet, although there was an improvement compared to 1999, journalists were still arrested, newspapers were banned and in certain areas of the country the press was a victim of violence. The political or religious commitment of certain titles put them in the firing line. In Karachi, which was plagued by ceaseless ethnic fighting, the number of attacks on journalists rose steeply.
The main press groups, especially Jang and Dawn, jealously defend their independence and readily criticise the military government that has been unable to fulfil the hopes it raised initially. Yet the state can easily put pressure on the press through government advertising. During the year about 15 publications closed down, especially in Sind province. According to certain observers, this is the result of a deliberate government policy to undermine the regional press by drastically cutting down on the number of official advertisements. The other impediment to an improvement in the press situation is corruption, which weighs heavily on an under-paid profession. A survey conducted this year by the Journalists' Resource Centre (JRC) shows that most journalists working outside large towns are not paid. Many press professionals abuse the "privileges" of their press card and easily adapt to "Lifafa journalism" based on corruption and blackmail.
In 2000 the government launched a programme to open the broadcasting sector, until then under state control. Before resigning in October, the information minister, Javed Jabbar, defended cable television operators against religious movements that branded them as "satanic". The military government announced a liberalisation plan for broadcasting although it excluded privatisation of the public sector channel PTV. The press group Jang applied for a licence.
The risk of "talibanisation", essentially in north-western Pakistan, increased during the year after religious movements close to the Afghan Taliban protested against cable television. For several years now Moslem fundamentalists have been exerting a strong influence on certain Urdu-language titles. In most cases this is reflected in calls to violence against religious minorities, especially the Ahmadiyah sect of which dozens of members have been murdered by Moslem extremists every year.
The Pakistani press remains heterogeneous, with differences depending on the language and region. Some titles even have very different editions depending on the towns in which they are published. The main English-language newspapers defend a liberal and secular view of Pakistani society. The Sindh dailies Kawish and Ibra are progressive and readily criticise the establishment. By contrast, in Karachi, numerous titles, such as Ummat, Takbir and Jasarat, support the Jamaat-e-Islami, the most highly structured religious movement in the country. Ausaf supports the Jihad and portraits of bin Laden triumphant are regularly published on the front page.
In certain areas journalists are the victims of multiple forms of pressure by the authorities and influential locals. For example, the president of the Journalists' Union in the Federally administered Tribal Areas in the north-west claims that to be a journalist "one has to belong to a strong clan, otherwise you risk you life every time you write an article". Arrested six times since the beginning of his career, Sailab Mehsood, an experienced journalist, explained that "traditions are completely contradictory to press freedom. So one has to struggle to be accepted as a journalist."

Journalists killed
On 2 May 38-year-old Soofi Muhammad Khan, a journalist with the Urdu-language daily Ummat (Nation), was shot dead in Tharparkar in the southern province of Sindh by members of a local criminal gang. He had published an article in April claiming that a Tharparkar criminal, Ayaz Khatak had become the "chargé d'affaires" of the Arbab mafia family and enjoyed the protection of two local councillors. On 30 April he received a visit from Ayaz Khatak who threatened to kill him if he kept publishing stories about his activities. But Soofi Muhammad Khan was not intimidated. On 1 May he sent an article to his editor in which he said that Ayaz Khatak was a pimp. The next day the article appeared in Ummat. When the journalist left his home at noon on his motorcycle Ayaz Khatak and three accomplices were waiting for him. "I told you I'd kill you", shouted the criminal before firing the first shot. A few days later police arrested Ayaz Khatak and two of his accomplices. Rafiq Afghan, managing editor of the daily, described Soffi Khan as "a courageous journalist, who never agreed to compromise his principles when investigating cases of trafficking".

Journalists jailed
On 1 January 2001 at least two journalists were in jail in Pakistan.
In June 2000 the Sindh anti-terrorist court rejected an appeal by Ayub Khoso, editorial writer for the former local daily Alakh, held since 18 December 1999 at Hyderabad central prison after giving himself up to the authorities. On 26 November 1999 the anti-terrorist court had sentenced Ayub Khoso and Zahoor Ansari, managing editor of the daily who was never jailed, for publishing an article on 5 September 1998 in Alakh, containing "insults" about Moslem prophets. The court sentenced Messrs Ansari and Khoso to ten years' imprisonment under Section 195 (A) and 34 of the Pakistani penal code. The sentence was increased by a further seven years under Section 8 (B and D) of the 1997 Anti-Terrorism Act. Moreover, the two journalists were fined 17,000 rupees (about 400 euros) each, or an additional two years' imprisonment. The complaint was filed by Mian Ahmed, a religious fundamentalist from Mirpur Khas, known for his court cases against publications which he claims are guilty of "incitement to religious hatred".
Rehmat Shah Afridi, editor-in-chief of the dailies The Frontier Post and Maidan, has been in Lahore prison since 2 April 1999. The authorities accuse him of being in possession of drugs when searched by the police. The journalist, who has consistently pleaded not guilty, is liable to the death sentence or life imprisonment. This year Rehmat Shah Afridi's case was adjourned several times. The drug squad has been unable to prove that the journalist was directly involved in drug trafficking.
On 29 February Gohar Ali and Malik Rab Nawaz, correspondents for the Urdu-language dailies Surkhab and Maidan respectively, were arrested in Batkhela in north-western Pakistan. The authorities accused them of investigating the involvement of civil servants in timber smuggling. They were accused of lying, under Article 420/34 of the penal code. Gohar Ali and Malik Rab Nawaz were held at the police station before being released on bail on 3 March. According to their colleagues, the two journalists were treated "inhumanly" during their detention.
On 23 May the local authorities issued a warrant for the arrest of Iqbal Hussain, correspondent for the newspapers Jang and The News in the Kurram agency of north-western Pakistan. The journalist fled and his brother, Ajmal Hussain, correspondent for the daily Sahafat, was arrested. On 6 June his father was also arrested. The two men were released on bail on 10 June for two weeks. The authorities demanded that Iqbal Hussain report to the police station if he did not want his father and brother to be arrested again. The journalist had written articles on the arrest of about 12 people during a demonstration to support a cleric in a conflict with the administrative authorities. Shortly afterwards Iqbal Hussain came to an arrangement with the authorities.
Ahmed Jan Siddiqui, correspondent for the newspaper Ausaf in Sadda in the Kurram agency, was arrested on 7 June. He was accused of publishing articles exposing corruption in the local administration. The journalist was released on 13 June.
Saeed Zaman Afridi, correspondent for the daily The News in the north-west, was arrested in June by police who accused him of insulting an officer. The officer in question had refused to allow the journalist to accompany paramilitaries during an operation in the Khyber region. His family intervened to obtain his release. Afridi was suffering from an ulcer and had a nervous breakdown. He was released less than a week after his arrest.
Zahid Amin Orakzai, correspondent for the privately-owned Urdu-language daily Khabrian in the Kohat district (65km south of Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province), was arrested on 9 August on the orders of the local authorities. He was detained at the Kohat police station. The local government accused him of writing an article, published a few days earlier, in which he said that men and women had "mingled" during a concert organised by the authorities to celebrate Pakistani independence. According to an official spokesperson, Zahid Amin Orakzai "deliberately tried to shock readers". The journalist was released on bail a few days later.
Shujaat Ali Khan was arrested on 29 August in Bisham, north of Peshawar, on the orders of a magistrate, for "fraud". The magistrate accused him of publishing an article in the daily Azadi (Freedom) although he was not employed as a journalist by that publication. Shujaat Ali Khan was detained at the Saidu Sharif central prison. In fact the journalist's arrest seems to be related to the publication, in the daily Din (Day), of a letter from a widow addressed to the chief of staff of the Pakistani army asking for the murderers of her husband and son to be arrested. The judge in charge of the murder case was directly implicated in her appeal. The same judge ordered the journalist's arrest.

Journalists arrested
Saadat Ali Mujahid, correspondent for the daily Jang in Gilgit in the north-eastern province of Kashmir, was arrested on 15 April 2000 by police after a local political party leader laid charges for libel. The journalist had just published a critical article about the politician in the local weekly Wadi that he was managing. After nine hours of questioning the journalist was released on bail.
Mobarik Virk, a journalist with the English-language daily The News, Tanvir Shahzad, a photographer with The News, Kamran Ahmed, a cameraman with the TV channel CNBC in Islamabad, Nasir Khan, a cameraman for Associated Press TV, and Shahid Ahmed, a cameraman with the public service TV channel Pakistan Television, were arrested and held for about three hours while trying to cover the departure into exile in Saudi Arabia of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Since they were close to the Chaklala military base, near Islamabad, the journalists were accused by an officer of breaking a law concerning the army.

Journalists attacked
In early May Sarfraz Ahmed, correspondent for the daily Dawn in Karachi, was the victim of a sham execution. While covering the funeral of three Shia militants, the journalist was kidnapped by three youths who locked him in a dark room and held a revolver to his temple. The journalist was released owing to police intervention.
On 10 July a large number of police officers entered the premises of the Lahore Press Club while Omer Sailya, leader of a shop-owners' union opposed to the government's economic policy, was holding a press conference. The police, who had a warrant of arrest for Omer Sailya, pushed about then hit journalists who tried to stop them from entering the building. The union leader was arrested and transferred to Karachi. The next day the information minister apologised for the violence but refused to meet the demands of journalists' unions that called for the resignation of the two officers responsible for the "assault".
On 16 July Abdul Hafeez Abid, one of the correspondents of the Urdu-language newspaper Ummat in Hyderabad, was attacked outside the newspaper's offices by an unidentified person who shot at him three times. The journalist's son was also hit. They were taken to hospital and released two weeks later. The daily Ummat is known for its strong criticism of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM, the Indian refugee party). The journalist, who worked for Takbber, another daily close to Jamaat-e Islami (a party engaged in open war with the MQM), was known for his unprofessional practice. According to the president of the Hyderabad press club, journalists involved in this conflict should not "turn their pens into swords".
Amjad Hussain, a photographer for the daily Jang, was assaulted on 31 October by police in front of a cricket stadium in Rawalpindi. A crowd, dissatisfied because it could not get into the stadium to watch Pakistan playing England, attacked the police who retaliated with truncheons and teargas. The photographer had his nose broken and several colleagues were pushed about by the police.
On 6 November a bomb exploded in the Karachi advertising offices of two conservative and nationalist dailies, Nation in English and Nawa-i-Waqt in Urdu. A women went into the offices and, according to the police, set off a bomb in the office of the advertising manager. Three people were killed: the woman in question, the newspaper's distribution manager, Ziaul Had, and the advertising manager, Hasan Zaidi. Four people were injured. No-one claimed responsibility for the attack but the editor of Nation, Arif Nizami, said that he had received threats and that he suspected the MQM party. This movement categorically denied his accusations. The day after the attack a bomb scare in the Karachi offices of the daily Jang caused panic. On the same day the interior minister asked police in the Punjab, Baluchistan, Sindh and North West Frontier Provinces to strengthen their protection of the press. On 11 November Sajid Mehmood, a computer operator in the advertising department, died of his injuries. On 13 November two of the main press organisations decreed a day's strike to condemn the authorities' feeble attitude and failure to protect the media against the latest wave of violence. Two days later the interior minister tried to reassure the media by asserting that full security measures would be taken to protect the press from "subversive attacks".

Journalists threatened
On 6 February Amjad Bhatti, one of the leaders of the main Pakistani press freedom organisation, the Journalists' Resource Centre (JRC), received a telephone call from Colonel Saulat Raza from the army press service, threatening him with reprisals. The JRC was busy inquiring into pressure exerted by members of the service on journalists from about six Urdu and English-language publications. The army press service wanted to stop publication of articles on misuse of power by soldiers in villages in the Punjab. On the same day an officer went to the offices of the English-language daily The Nation and forced journalist Javed Rana and his editor to hand over all the documents collected by the journalist. At the same time an officer tried in vain to stop the managing editor of the daily Ausaf from publishing articles about the case.
On 28 May Abid Asad, a reporter with the daily Mashriq, was threatened by two members of the army secret police in the offices of the newspaper, which had just published an article on trafficking in medical equipment at the Peshawar military hospital. "They threatened to get back at me if I didn't publish a denial", explained the journalist.
On 4 July Inayat-ul-Haq Yasini, a journalist with the Pashto-language daily Wahdat who lives in Peshawar, received anonymous telephone calls threatening him with "the direst consequences". In the 26 June edition, Wahdat had published the results of an opinion poll of Afghan refugees in camps in the north-west of Pakistan. The same anonymous caller said that the article was too favourable to General Al-Maroof Shariati, leader of the National Afghan Council for Peace, an opposition party in exile. The journalist affirmed that he had already received death threats three times, from "anonymous callers from the Taliban". Raham Dil Shah, director of the daily published in Peshawar and intended for Afghan refugees, said he had been asked not to publish the opinion poll, "but Yasini insisted". The journalist also received an anonymous letter advising him "not to favour the movement of General Al-Maroof Shariati" or he would "pay a high price". "We won't be responsible for what could happen to those who promote this movement financed by the CIA", the letter warned.

Pressure and obstruction
Since the arrival in power of the military junta, many vernacular newspapers have experienced drastic cuts in government advertising. The consequent drop in earnings has forced a large number of them to close. Of the 14 dailies in Sindhi published in the province of Sindh, nine have shut down since January 2000. Likewise, four Urdu-language newspapers out of eight in that province have stopped publishing. According to certain observers, this is the result of a deliberate policy by the authorities, intended to punish newspapers which are sympathetic to protest movements or sensitive to civic issues. National newspapers receive 75% of all government advertising while the numerous regional newspapers receive only the remaining 25%.
Ehsan-ur-Rehman Saghir, reporter for the Urdu-language daily Mashriq, has been wanted by the police since 1 March because of his investigations of corruption in the civil service. The district magistrate asked the journalist to publish a denial of his disclosures within two days or face prosecution. On 1 January 2001 the journalist had not been prosecuted.
In southern Pakistan about 50 armed individuals attacked and vandalised the premises of the Hyderabad newspaper Shaam on 26 April. According to Naz Sehto, the managing editor of the newspaper, the attack was due to the publication of a series of articles implicating local political leaders in corruption.
On 18 May the Karachi premises of the financial newspaper Business Recorder were ransacked and burned by a crowd of supporters of Maulana Yousuf Ludhianvi, a Sunni cleric murdered that morning. The majority of the newspaper's staff were forced to hide for several hours since they received no police protection. According to a police officer, "certain individuals were identified as having participated in the attack", but as Arshad Zuberi, managing editor of the newspaper, said, nothing was done to arrest them. The next day Javed Jabbar, information minister, said from the ruined newspaper building that the attack was "well prepared" and that it showed "the dangers of extremism".
In June religious movements launched a campaign against cable television operators authorised by the federal government at the beginning of the year. "We won't hesitate to use all possible means to force the government to close cable television in the country" warned Ehsan-ul-Haq, one of the leaders of Islami Muttahida Inqilabi Mahaz, an umbrella movement covering 21 Pakistani Islamist organisations. To mobilise their troops against "vulgar and obscene" television programmes, the Ulemas (Moslem theologians) published a fatwa calling on Moslems to "rise up against the devil", i.e. cable TV operators. In April, activists from Islami Tehrik-e-Taliban had destroyed broadcasting equipment. On 13 June a group of clerics forced the local Hyatabad administration (south-west of Peshawar) to close down the six recently established cable TV operators. Zakria Khan, one of the investors involved, explained that he had been "summoned to the police station and told to close [his] company, without any official order". Together with five other operators he lodged an appeal on 24 June with the Peshawar high court. A few days earlier, on 21 June, Muhammad Shafique, governor of the province, had announced the banning of cable television operators in the region during a demonstration by several thousand religious activists. The next day his spokesperson published a correction after the federal government reminded the governor that he was not competent to take such a decision. This conflict with the central government forced the governor to resign on 13 August. On 5 July the operators were authorised to resume their activities. On 20 July one of the religious leaders declared that "the Peshawar high court's decision is not in accordance with the constitution and with Islam. We will ban operators by force if the government does not do it by law". In November a leader of Jamiat-e-Ulema e Islam recognised that the campaign against cable television was a failure but that activists were now prepared to use violence. "We could, for example, send electric current through television cables or destroy the offices of those companies", he told a journalist.
On 22 July a magistrate in Baluchistan province cancelled the publishing licences of 31 newspapers, magazines and monthlies on the pretext that they came out irregularly or even not at all. A few days later the same magistrate suspended the licence of the local edition of the daily Inqilab for "publishing false and fabricated information". According to the newspaper's management, it had published an article criticising one of the provincial leaders.
In September the government tabled a bill in parliament on freedom of information, concerning the public's access to official documents. This new law prevents journalists from having access to certain official documents, notably the minutes of meetings or any document that a civil servant deems "confidential". It also states that official documents are to be accessible only 21 days after they are issued ­ an interval considered by professional associations to be "incompatible with journalists' work". Finally, it provides for no punishment for a civil servant who breaks the law by refusing to disclose an official document.
On 27 September three engineers from the Karachi electricity company, accompanied by six soldiers, went to the head office of the press group Dawn in Karachi. They asked to inspect the building, under the pretext that they were checking electrical equipment. Despite the reluctance of the newspaper editors, an engineer finally inspected the offices for four hours. According to Dawn journalists, the inspection seemed very much like "a punitive police raid". This incident followed a week of tension between Dawn and the authorities and especially the information minister, who demanded a correction after publication of a story headed "Free press: Does Musharraf have ulterior motives?". The newspaper had referred to remarks made by General Musharraf during the United Nations Millennium Summit. In particular, the head of the Pakistani government had said that he had "no intention of gagging the press but considering what is published in Pakistan, [he] ought to have do so ten times over". The authorities reportedly also accused Dawn of publishing an interview with the father of the former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who claimed that members of the army had contacted him before the coup d'état to tell him to ask his son to resign. After these articles appeared, the press information department (PID, an official body in charge of relations between the government and the press) asked the editor, Salim Asmi, for a correction. He refused, reminding the authorities that they could use their right to have a reply published. On 6 October the Dawn group asked the Pakistan supreme court to issue a statement on this "deterioration of press freedom". In a letter to Reporters Without Borders, Javed Jabbar, information minister at the time, replied that the government did not intend to intimidate the newspaper.
The Skardu district judge in Baltistan banned the weekly K2 on 17 October for "publishing questionable information", "promoting anti-Pakistani feeling" and "defending the reduction of the national territory". He accused Raja Hussain Khan Maqpoon, managing editor of K2, of publishing an article in April entitled "Sovereignty for Gilgit, Baltistan: a revision", in which a former student leader called for independence for the region. The judge referred to the Press and Publication Ordinance of 1995 which provides for measures to be taken against media that spread "seditious and doubtful" information. He also accused it of publishing an article, in August 2000, on a demonstration organised by members of a Baltistan independence movement. In early October the judge demanded that the managing editor of the weekly provide explanations, and threatened to take action against him. In his reply, sent to the judge a few days before the verdict, the managing editor recalled that it was explicitly stated in K2 that the editorial staff did not necessarily share the same point of view as outside contributors. The publication, devoted to news in Baltistan ­ situated at the foot of K2, the second-highest mountain in the world ­ regularly condemns the "second-class status" of the inhabitants of the province under government supervision. According to the managing editor, K2 has "always respected journalistic deontology" and given a voice to the inhabitants of the "province without a constitution", as the maxim on the cover page of the weekly indicates. Journalists in the province demonstrated on 2 November in the streets of Gilgit against the "political decision"ordered by the government. Twelve of them were arrested by police and detained for a few hours.
On 5 November the magistrate of Kotli district in Kashmir banned the broadcasting of Indian TV programmes for two months in all hotels, restaurants and public places after 10 pm.