Pakistan: Journalist bodies ask govt to frame law to protect scribes

The demand was made on Monday when the country joined the rest of the world in observing International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists and Media.

“As Pakistan remains among the top 10 countries where predators of attacks on journalists and media go unpunished, we demand urgent legislation to protect journalists and reverse the current situation affecting Freedom of Expression negatively,” PFUJ and FN said in a joint statement issued on Monday as quoted by Geo News.

“We cannot afford any further delay in doing legislation,” the two organisations reminded the federal government, asking the cabinet to quickly approve the draft law on journalists' protection which Federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari had prepared after consultation with stakeholders.

Even though 2020 saw a “slight decrease” in the rate of impunity for crimes against journalists, 87 per cent of such cases worldwide were still not resolved, UNESCO, the UN agency tasked with defending press freedom, has reported.

According to the Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity, a report by the Director-General of UNESCO, only 13 per cent of cases globally involving crimes against journalists were reported “as resolved”, in comparison to 12 per cent in 2019, and 11 per cent in 2018.

The biennial report also said that in 2018-19, a total of 156 killings of journalists were recorded worldwide, and over the past decade, a journalist was killed – on average – every four days.

In 2018, 99 killings were recorded, while in 2019, 57 journalists were killed, the lowest death toll in the last ten years.

As of the end of September, 39 journalists lost their lives in 2020, the report added.