The Pakistan Army's chief spokesperson, Major General Asif Ghafoor, has never tired of lecturing the Indian media on the need to show courage and question claims of the Indian government.
On Sunday, Ghafoor tweeted that the Indian media was “falsely” claiming targeting of “alleged” terror camps. He implored them to show moral courage and follow the journalistic ethos of the Pakistan media for “reporting with responsibility”.
But two incidents in the past few days are posing a crucial question on whether freedom of the press is already dead in Pakistan. The first incident was a tweet from a noted journalist that he was effectively leaving journalism. The second incident was the Pakistan government denying entry to an office-bearer of the Committee to Protect Journalists, an international organisation that monitors press freedom across the world.
Almeida resigns
On Sunday evening, Cyril Almeida, a celebrated journalist with Dawn newspaper, Pakistan's most widely read English publication, tweeted that he had resigned from the publication and ended his Sunday column. Almeida, who won this year's International Press Institute 'World Press Freedom Hero' in April, also announced “There is no plan to return to writing in the foreseeable future, a break from the media appears to be on the cards.”
Some more work news, belatedly: I have resigned from Dawn and ended the Sunday column. Am deeply grateful for the readership and affection over the years. There is no plan to return to writing in the foreseeable future, a break from the media appears to be on the cards. 🙏
— cyril almeida (@cyalm) October 20, 2019
Almeida, who was a Rhodes scholar, rose to be the assistant editor of Dawn in 2013. Almeida has achieved global acclaim for his exposes on the Pakistan military's ties to terror groups. In 2016, Almeida's reportage of tension between the military and the then-ruling Nawaz Sharif government over the Pakistan Army's ties to terrorists caused a sensation. Almeida's work, called the 'Dawn leaks', resulted in the military putting him on an exit control list, preventing him from fleeing Pakistan.
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Almeida faced charges of treason for an interview with Sharif in 2018 in which the former prime minister raised concerns over the activities of terror groups. Almeida suspended his Sunday column briefly in January.
Almeida has been considered close to Taha Siddiqui, another Pakistani journalist, who fled the country in 2018, citing threats from the military. Siddiqui, who also reported on the military's ties to extremists, claimed the ISI had attempted to kidnap him. Siddiqui, who moved to France, had tweeted from the handle of Almeida in January 2018 that nearly a dozen armed men had tried to kidnap him.
CPJ official denied entry
On October 17, officials at the Lahore Airport denied entry to the Asia coordinator of the CPJ on the grounds his name was on a government blacklist. Though Steven Butler had a valid journalist visa, entry was denied as his name was on a "stop list of the Interior Ministry", a statement from CPJ said.
Butler was travelling to Lahore to attend a conference on human rights.
According to the CPJ, since 1992, 61 journalists have been killed in Pakistan.
