Pakistan Conflict Monitor

US Embassy Fights to Correct Errors in Pakistani Media

US Embassy Launches Campaign to Correct Errors in Pakistani Media, The Washington Post, 27 June 2010

EXCERPT: "Some reports are deemed 'a paranoid fabrication,' such as the claim that all Pakistanis are stripped naked in U.S. airports. Others are 'false and malicious,' such as the one about the Americans moving Pakistani Taliban leaders to Afghanistan to prepare them for a battle against Pakistan's army. So says the U.S. Embassy here, which for nearly eight months has issued statements countering every major error about American foreign policy that it finds in Pakistan's boisterous media. It's a herculean task that embassy officials say has been undertaken by no other U.S. mission in the world - because nowhere else, those officials say, does U.S. policy face such disdain and misrepresentation. [...] So far the public has not been swayed: A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 17 percent of Pakistanis view the United States favorably, and only 8 percent expressed faith in President Obama - his lowest rating in 22 countries surveyed. The corrections have challenged widely believed theories in a nation with a penchant for conspiracies: that Americans were behind deadly bombings ('absurd, baseless') or plotting a 'massive infiltration' by U.S. Marines of Pakistan's militant-riddled tribal areas ('entirely false')."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Preserving the slender thread in Pakistan [op-ed], Open Democracy, 28 June 2010
What's on Pakistan TV talk shows? Extremists., The Christian Science Monitor, 23 June 2010

Related posts:
Media fuels conspiracy theories, 26 May 2010
Journalist accused of link to Taliban hostage's murder, 20 May 2010
Pakistanis engulfed by conspiracy theories, 16 February 2010
US-funded Pashto radio a new weapon in war against Taliban, 18 January 2010

Media Fuels Conspiracy Theories

US Is a Top Villain in Pakistan’s Conspiracy Talk, The New York Times, 25 May 2010

EXCERPT: "Americans may think that the failed Times Square bomb was planted by a man named Faisal Shahzad. But the view in the Supreme Court Bar Association here in Pakistan’s capital is that the culprit was an American 'think tank.' No one seems to know its name, but everyone has an opinion about it. It is powerful and shadowy, and seems to control just about everything in the American government, including President Obama. 'They have planted this character Faisal Shahzad to implement their script,' said Hashmat Ali Habib, a lawyer and a member of the bar association. Who are they? 'You must know, you are from America,' he said smiling. 'My advice for the American nation is, get free of these think tanks.' Conspiracy theory is a national sport in Pakistan, where the main players — the United States, India and Israel — change positions depending on the ebb and flow of history. Since 2001, the United States has taken center stage, looming so large in Pakistan’s collective imagination that it sometimes seems to be responsible for everything that goes wrong here."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Pakistan's opinionated media landscape [article+video], The New York Times // At War, 26 May 2010
Media freedom fears after Pakistan Facebook ban, BBC News, 26 May 2010

Related posts:
Journalist accused of link to Taliban hostage's murder, 20 May 2010
Pakistanis engulfed by conspiracy theories, 16 February 2010

Journalist Accused of Link to Taliban Hostage's Murder

Pakistani News Presenter Accused of Link to Taliban Hostage's Murder, The Guardian, 20 May 2010

EXCERPT: "Pakistan's pugnacious media world was plunged into controversy today when a leaked audio tape apparently linked its most popular television presenter with the execution of a Taliban hostage. The tape purports to be a recording of a phone conversation between the journalist, Hamid Mir, and a Taliban spokesman about the fate of Khalid Khawaja, a former intelligence agent being held by the Taliban. In the tape Mir describes Khawaja as a CIA collaborator, questions his Islamic credentials, and accuses him of playing a treacherous role in the 2007 Red Mosque siege in which more than 100 people, including the chief cleric, were killed. When the abductor asks the journalist whether Khawaja should be released, he urges him to further interrogate him. Last month Khawaja's bullet-pocked body was found on a roadside in Waziristan with a warning note to other 'American spies'. As debate about the tape swirled in media circles, Mir issued a strenuous denial saying the tape had been fabricated by his enemies in government to destroy his reputation and silence him. [...] But several senior journalists said the tape sounded authentic and one called on the government to investigate further."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Intelligence agencies confirm Hamid Mir's voice in audio clip, Daily Times, 20 May 2010
Khwaja's son to file murder case against TV anchor, DAWN, 20 May 2010
Pakistan's paranoid, irresponsible media hampering terror fight, Hudson Institute, 20 May 2010

Related documents:
Transcript of Hamid Mir's conversation, Daily Times, 16 May 2010

Related posts:
Hostage confusion highlights split among Taliban, 10 May 2010
Former ISI agent's killing points to Taliban's lack of unity, 3 May 2010
Confessions of a Pakistani spy, 23 April 2010
"Kidnapped" journalists, former ISI agents with Taliban, 9 April 2010

Pakistan 10th in 2010 Impunity Index

Getting Away with Murder: 2010 Impunity Index, Committee to Protect Journalists, 20 April 2010

EXCERPT: "Pakistani authorities have won convictions in only one case in the past decade, the murder of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002. Twelve other journalist murders have gone unsolved during that time. Two of the murders were reported in 2009, a year in which journalists faced intense pressure from militants and enormous challenges in covering a series of military offensives. The 2009 victims included television correspondent, who was abducted and executed while covering a peace march in a militant-controlled area in Swat. Impunity Index Rating: 0.072 unsolved journalist murders per 1 million inhabitants. Last year: Ranked 10th with a rating of 0.062. [...] CPJ's Impunity Index calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country's population. CPJ examined every nation worldwide for the period January 1, 2000, through December 31, 2009. Only those nations with five or more unsolved cases are included on this index. Cases are considered unsolved when no convictions have been obtained."

View the rest of the report.

Related articles:
Militants release video of kidnapped journalist, retired ISI officers, International Press Institute, 21 April 2010
TV journalist among 8 killed in suicide attack in Pak, India Express, 16 April 2010
Journalists press for freedom, Daily Times, 7 April 2010

Related posts:
Attacks on the Press 2009: Pakistan, 17 February 2010
Suicide bomber strikes press club in NW, 22 December 2009
Pakistan 159th out of 175 in 2009 Press Freedom Index, 16 November 2009

Attacks on the Press 2009: Pakistan

Attacks on the Press 2009: Pakistan, Committee to Protect Journalists, 16 February 2010

EXCERPT: "As Pakistan’s military launched two major offensives within its borders, officials pressured news media to report favorably on the conflicts while the Taliban and other militants threatened and attacked critical reporters. Reporters for Urdu- and Pashto-language news outlets came under the greatest pressure because of their wider influence among Pakistanis... In July, CPJ traveled to Islamabad and Peshawar to meet with journalists covering the military offensive in the Swat Valley. About 260 local reporters were forced along with about 2 million others from the general population to flee the combat areas, according to the Khyber Union of Journalists. Some stayed behind, but their coverage was severely limited by the fighting and by threats of reprisal from militants. The homes of at least six journalists were leveled by militants in retribution for critical reporting. Much of the front-line coverage was handled by Pakistani reporters from outside the region who had embedded with the military. They encountered the limitations that embedding implies: skewed viewpoints, self-imposed censorship, and outright military control of information. Video was heavily censored; coverage of destruction caused by army shelling, for example, was banned."

Read the full report.

Related articles:
Pakistan media protest after journalist attacked, DAWN, 19 January 2010
Spies and journalists in Pakistan [blog], Center for New American Security // Abu Muqawama, 23 November 2009
Restrictions on the media in military operations in South Waziristan, Asian Human Rights Commission, 6 November 2009

Related reports:
"War on terror" cripples media in Pakistan, says new IMS report, International Media Support, 15 September 2009

Related posts:
Suicide bomber strikes press club in NW, 22 December 2009
Pakistan 159th out of 175 in 2009 Press Freedom Index, 16 November 2009

US-Funded Pashto Radio a New Weapon in War Against Taliban

US-Funded Pashto Radio a New Weapon in War Against Taliban, The Globe and Mail, 16 January 2010

EXCERPT: "Funded by U.S. Congress, Radio Mashaal represents a first salvo in a new war of words against the Taliban that the West acknowledges it has been losing. As Washington steps up drone attacks in northwest Pakistan, another equally important battle is being waged on the airwaves for hearts and minds of Pashtuns living in the border region, traditionally a Taliban stronghold. 'There is an urgent need for accurate, objective news and information in Pakistan's tribal areas,' U.S. Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said. While polls show support for the Taliban is flagging, the movement's message still dominates in the street. In Pakistan's tribal areas, there are just a handful of legal radio stations, compared with nearly 200 illegal stations run by militants, often from the back of a motorbike. Last summer, Washington established a new unit within the State Department to counter militant propaganda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, spending up to $150-million (U.S.) a year to fund a range of efforts including new radio stations, expanded cellphone service and journalists' training."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Holbrooke displeased by media criticism against US, Daily Times, 16 January 2010
Kaira declares 2010 as "Year of Radio", DAWN, 16 January 2010
RFE/RL launches radio station in Pakistan's Pashtun heartland, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, 14 January 2010
Taliban "Radio Mullah" hurt in Pakistan offensive, CNN, 8 July 2009
Pakistan's Taliban radio insurgency, BBC News, 22 June 2009

Related posts:
Suicide bomber strikes press club in NW, 22 December 2009
Pakistan 159th out of 175 in 2009 Press Freedom Index, 16 November 2009

Suicide Bomber Strikes Press Club in NW

Police Say Suicide Bomber Kills 3 in NW Pakistan, The Associated Press, 22 December 2009

EXCERPT: "A suicide bomber detonates his explosives outside a press club in northwestern Pakistan, leaving three people dead in the latest attack against the city of Peshawar since the military launched a major offensive near the Afghan border. A policeman tried to search the attacker as he approached the press club's gate, but the man resisted and was able to trigger his explosives, killing the officer and an accountant who worked for the organization, said Peshawar's police chief, Liaquat Ali Khan. A third person — a woman who was at the site of the attack — apparently died of cardiac arrest, said Sahib Gul, a doctor at a hospital in Peshawar where the bodies were brought. . . Seventeen other people were injured in the attack, many of whom were traveling in a bus that was passing the press club when the explosion occurred, said Gul. . . Peshawar has been hit by at least seven attacks in the past two months in retaliation for a military offensive launched in mid-October against the militant stronghold of South Waziristan in Pakistan's lawless tribal area near the Afghan border. . . 'Journalists have played a vital role in our war by exposing the terrorists, so they are on the target list too like mosques, bazaars and security institutions,' said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister for Northwest Frontier Province, of which Peshawar is the capital."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Pakistan bombings by Taliban hit lower classes hardest, The Christian Science Monitor, 22 December 2009
Will Pakistani journalists be diverted from truth?, China View, 22 December 2009
Security around churches beefed up in Karachi, GEO TV, 22 December 2009
"Missing" Baloch journalist found in police custody, Daily Times, 16 December 2009

Related posts:
Suicide attacks spike, but overall attacks down, 17 December 2009
Militants strike market, target official in Punjab, 15 December 2009
Militants strike again, kill dozens in multiple attacks, 7 December 2009
Militants strike mosque, kill dozens, 4 December 2009
Market blast kills dozens, injures many more, 10 November 2009

Pakistan 159th Out of 175 in 2009 Press Freedom Index

'Pakistan Country Report', Reports Without Borders for Press Freedom, October 2009

EXCERPT: "The Taliban offensive and the political upheavals shaking the country have led to ever harsher repercussions for journalists. More journalists have been killed so far in Pakistan in 2009 than in any other country. There has been an upsurge in attacks on the media and press clubs in the tribal areas, but also in Balochistan and sometimes in the big cities.Though the 1973 Constitution guarantees press freedom, the law still contains a number of articles allowing journalists to be sentenced to prison terms for offences including 'defamation', 'immorality' and insulting Islam or the sovereignty of the country. Even though no journalist is currently in prison for this reason, it is not unusual for reporters to be 'questioned' for several hours by the secret services."

Read the full report or view the 2009 Press Freedom Index.

Related articles:
Misjudging media freedom in Pakistan, DAWN, 15 November 2009
Pak media countering extremist propaganda effectively, Associated Press of Pakistan, 12 November 2009
Media personnel assaulted, detained while covering protests at jail, Pakistan Press Foundation in IFEX, 11 November 2009
Call for better media access to Tribal Areas, Reporters Without Borders, 10 November 2009
Information black hole, At War: News from the Front Lines / The New York Times, 21 October 2009