THREATS TO JOURNALISTS IN SINDH: EVENTS AND PERCEPTIONS (2000-2017)

This study explores threats to journalists in Sindh, searching the journalist’s community, allocating its existence through a premeditated survey with directional questionnaire. Consulting 150 journalists to find out the essence, magnitude and targeting aspects of the threats they are facing in wake of their line of duty. Journalists and threats are both enter-linked since the birth of journalism, a journalist is a Watch-Dog or Gate-Keeper, who guards the boundaries of transparency, freedom of expression, sphere of laws and protects and promotes the social values and norms and facilitates political communication to educate and update the citizens. Doing all this in a part of the state where the situation of law and order is deteriorated, the population is heterogeneous in its nature, is a big challenge. Attacks on journalists have been searched from the history of media landscape for last 17 years in Sindh to weigh up the threats to Watch-Dogs. The study generalizes, whether working journalists are serving under pressure in an environment governed by threats or they feel safe and free to perform their journalistic duties. It also calculates the responses of the affected journalists in the outward appearance of complaints they file in connection with the threats faced for their professional work.


Introduction
The vernacular press entered into a new phase with new dimensions in the new state of Pakistan in 1947 but the colonial legacy remained unchanged. Dr. Zafar Iqbal sums up in his research paper "Pakistan's Press and politics in the First Decade (1947)(1948)(1949)(1950)(1951)(1952)(1953)(1954)(1955)(1956)(1957)(1958))" 1 and says that press had brought the spirit of Freedom Movement with it but its fate met a failure when censor was imposed on it. The first blow was seen when the address of the founder of the state Muhammad Ali Jinnah was tried by the establishment to be cut down. The daily "Dawn" and daily "Jang" came first to Sindh pioneering the press in the newly created country but the press-government relations could not developed to institute a free press to play its role for healing the democracy in the Pakistan. Political instability and despotic governments in the state from time to time also shared atrocities to confine the press. K.B Saeed marks out the faction's wars in the ruling parties, palace intrigues and intolerance for truth to hear and affirms them to be the main factors, imprison the press 2 .
Journalists have always remained under pressure for favouritism in the country including the province of Sindh. Yusuf and Shoemaker in their research for BBC Policy Briefing 3 declare that media in Pakistan remains vulnerable amid on-going threats to media professionals and the limitations imposed by the industry's financial model, which must rely heavily on adverting revenue. The state actors, government, military intelligence agencies, judiciary, and non-state actors, militant groups and political activists exploit this vulnerability. According to an online report issued by Centre for Civic Education (CCE), more than three thousands of journalists are performing their professional duties in Sindh and 46 dailies, 7 weeklies, 6 fortnightlies and 53 monthly newspapers are being published in the province on regular basis and headquarters of mostly watched TV channels, Geo, ARY and Express, bureau offices of all the Cable and terrestrial channel are working under pressure in Sindh 4 , but still the media had a proud history of struggle for the freedom of expression and democracy 5 .

Government-press relation and press freedom
The government-press relation has profound effect on the freedom of press. The province of Sindh has a history of deteriorated government-press relations 6 where the press remained under constant pressure. All the governments with no exception used advertisements, newsprints quota and licenses to silence the press or gain favor through them. During the period under study the province of Sindh remained under Governor Rule from October 30, 1998 to December 17, 2002. After the coup of General Parvez Musharraf (Oct 12, 1999) emergency was declared in the state and Sindh like other parts of the state suffered the despotic rule. Undeclared censorship on the Press in the province prevailed during the Musharraf's backed rule and journalists remained under direct threats given by political parties 7 . No measurements were taken to improve the government-press relation even after the end of Musharraf's backed Mutaheda Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Qaid-e-Azam Muslim League (QML) coalition government. The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Mutaheda Qaumi Movement (MQM) coalition politics tried to keep the press under pressure and to use it for vested interests. During democratic era, lists of journalists were publicly issued and they were openly threatened 8 .
Press in big cities like Karachi and Hyderabad is freer than that in small towns of Sindh 9 but journalists in small towns are exposed to threats and suffer more than in large cities 10 because law and order situation in big cities is better than that in the small towns. Journalists face double pressure for their journalistic work in small towns, on one hand the institutions ask for filing reports while on the other hand, the interests groups threaten them and demand them not to cover specific events and news stories 11 . But journalists are also involved in deteriorating the government-press relation in Sindh 12 . Some of the journalists use to threaten political leaders, citizens, police and other government officers for personal gains and some time they call and challenge them after filing reports 13 . Non professionalism and low educational level of journalists are also responsible for weakening the press freedom situation in the province 14 . Electronic media is divided into political blocks. Some of the channels support Pakistan People's Party (PPP), some of them are busy to support the agenda of Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI), other advocate and try to safeguard the interests of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML) 15 . Michael Lavarch in his research article notes that the owners of media enterprises and journalists have a range of motivations including economical self-interest and political ideology. These types of motives invariably influence the exercise of media power 16 and decline the freedom of press. Such approaches of journalists and media houses corrupt the press and increase threats to journalists.
Throughout the history of media in the province, no serious effort was made to develop a healthy and realistic relation between the press and government and between the press and society and even among the component parts of the profession like among different media enterprises and between the press and journalists. At the same time no serious and continuous attempt was tried to build up professionalism in the field of journalism rather the press has been treated as an enemy or hostile entity by the power holders and tricks gamers, the state or non-state actors. As a result no strong ties could be grown for the better use of the press to enhance the standards of society, or the government and its institutions nor the standards of the profession could be boosted to objectivity and impartiality in accordance to its spirit or international values.

The political barons: an impatience and illogical zeal for political communication
The political stakeholders need to mobilize the public opinion for which they use national media to effectively convey their messages to masses. This is a general practice in the world which is termed as the Political Communication but in Pakistan, the fashion of political communication is detrimental and the parties insert pressure on media for relatively more space and coverage 17 . The history of journalism in Sindh reveals that this trend has given way to the harassment of media persons, flaming of media houses, blazing the houses of journalists, the properties of journalists, bribing the owners and journalists and many other unfair means to influence and threaten the media for their vested interests. Amnesty International in its report affirms that powerful political actors seek to block the transmission of broadcast channels with whom they are displeased. The report further says that the parties also pressurizing individual cable operators or physically cutting the cable for vested interests to gain 18 .

Religious powers and their influences on the press
Religious groups influence and check the national and even international press in Pakistan for religious content. The state ideology, social and ethical layout of the state permits them to impede into everything in the country including media. Syed Abdul Siraj concludes in his research paper that the religious groups and middle classes are criticizing some of the TV channels for western orientations in their contents 19 . He finds that journalists do their duties according to the perceived ethics. Social and religious activists put pressure for following their designs in the news content and coverage of events 20 . Successive governments in the state have sought to influence privately-owned media through censorship and regulations 21 . The direct and indirect censorship confine the free flow of information and affect the editorial policies of newspapers and news channels 22 . Laws and regulation are necessary to insure check and balance but they are used always for personal interests. National media is not only subject to legal restrictions and the state agents but political backed land grabbers, traffickers and other interest groups are also constantly confining the freedom of press and threatening journalists for vested interests.

Journalists are seeking self-censorship
Amnesty International evaluates the censoring trend and its effects on the freedom of press. The report says: harassment and other abuses faced by journalists seeking to discharge their professional duties impartially have resulted in self-censorship, in order to 17  protect themselves and that trend leads to a diminished approach to open public discourses 23 .In the year 2014, Pakistan Taliban sent mails to prominent media groups, Jang, Express, Herald and others, threatening them of dire consequences and blamed them for one-sided news about Taliban. Administrations of media outlets issued directives to suspend reports critical of the militant organization and its allies. The researcher himself received the directive for being a copy-in charge in the Jang Group of Newspapers. This type of situation demands Self-Censorship, because the authorities do fail to provide protection for journalists and media houses. Self-censorship is the only way of self-defense for journalists to continue their jobs because objectivity bear threats whereas journalists are exposed to pressure and threats 24

Attacks on journalists in Sindh: an overview (2000-2017)
The police and law-enforcement agencies continued to curtail the freedom of press and threatened and harassed journalists throughout the country. was killed in Mirpurkhas 33 . According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, he was shot by drug trafficker Ayaz Khatak. Sufi had a reputation for hard line reporting. Sufi Muhammad Khan had filed a story on Khatak's suspected connections with a local prostitute that was published on May 02, 2000 in daily Ummat, the same day the reporter was killed. The killer surrendered to police after 30 minutes of murder. Prior to his death, Sufi had written an article alleging Khatatk on drug trafficking in Badin. He was being threatened to be killed. Sufi was exposed to all threats and that resulted in his death. Police also suspected the Arbab family, which allegedly ran a prostitution ring. After a failed struggle to silent Sufi, the family had filed a defamation case against him and his paper. The American Journalist Daniel Pearl was killed in Karachi 34   The overview affirms that the press and journalists remained under attacks and under pressure in Sindh during the period under study (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017). And actors, including political parties, traffickers, police, religious groups and militants tried their best to confine the freedom press. The ex-presidents of Karachi Press Club Imtiaz Khan Faran and Khursheed Abbasi confirm the pressure on journalists from the above mentioned actors 48 . This situation increase threats to journalists and as a result degrading the freedom of press in the province.

Main stream media vs. local media
The history of attacks on journalists and media houses reveals that mostly the main stream media has been targeted by interests groups in Sindh. Daily Jang Karachi, daily Dawn Karachi, daily Kawish Hyaderabad, daily Express Karachi, daily Ummat Karachi, Geo TV, AbTakk TV Karachi, Express TV, Dharti TV, Awaz TV and daily Ebrat are among the main affected media houses. The overview also depicts that attacks were made only in the big cities of the province like Karachi, Hyderabad, Larkana and Mirpur Khas. The local newspapers like daily Hamwatan Karachi, daily daily Qyadat Karachi, daily Sindh Hyderabad and so on and their affiliated journalists remained safe. The founder of the Jang Group of Newspapers Mir Khalil URehman in an interview confessed that political actors were pressuring the press for more space and coverage and Jang was the most affected media house due to its largest circulation 49 . The most influential media houses and the investigative journalists stay on the target and that is the usual practice in the province of Sindh 50 .

Survey regarding threats to journalists in Sindh
Survey method was used to get ground realities regarding threats to journalists in the province of Sindh consulting the journalist's community. A sample of 150 working journalists was selected on the basis of Snowball technique. One hundred and forty four questionnaires were found completed from all aspects and the data was analyzed, using statistical tools i-e tables and pie-chats under Likert's Summative Scale.

Level of threats
The table and figure 1 show that majority of journalists (65%) are not facing threats in connection with their journalistic work while 35% of journalists are confronting threats. The data shows that threat is present in the profession.  The target of threats Table and figure 3 indicate that threats are mostly (63%) directed towards the journalists while 37% goes to both the journalists and their families where as no threat is pointed to the family alone. This trend of threatening denotes that journalists and their families are on the target of actors pressurizing journalists for their professional duties. The actors behind the threats Table and figure 5 illustrate that only 37% of journalists have gone with a complaint after they received threats for their journalistic works where most of the respondents (63%) have not registered any complaint even after they confronted threats.   Level of satisfaction against  Table and figure 9 illustrate most (53%) of the respondents point out no effect of threats on the objectivity of their journalistic work while lesser (47%) respondents admitted bad effects on the objectivity of professional performances. But the data affirms the very existence of the effects on the objectivity of journalistic work. The level of Self-Censorship Table: 11 Motive behind the self-censorship (percentage) n=93

Percent age Qty
To avoid judicial constraints 43 40 To avoid the anger of employer 22 20 To avoid the threats 35 33 Total 100 93 Table and figure 11 show that motive for self-censorship is mostly (43%) to avoid judicial constraints followed by 35% to avoid the threats where as 22% is to avoid the anger of the employer. Table: 12

Level of satisfaction against the self-censorship (percentage) n=93
Table and figure 12 explain that after applying the Self-Censorship, most (68%) of the respondents are satisfied while 22% feel partial satisfaction whereas only 10% of the respondents are not satisfied even after censoring their journalistic work.   Total 100 144

Conclusion
The press and journalists remains under pressure and are exposed to threats in Sindh and the working environment is not favorable for an institutionalized journalism. The presence of threats (35%) indicates that journalists are confronting fear in the region for their journalistic performance. Same is the condition with the families of journalists as 37% have affirmed receiving threats. The more drastic situation rests here that the 21% of the actors behind the threats are unknown, 15% each from land grabbers and individuals. The governing and opposition political parties, the law enforcement agencies, social , religious, militant and economical interests groups are all involved in threatening and pressurizing journalists for their professional activities. The other aspect is that 39% of the journalists facing full while 51% are confronting partial pressure. This picture of media in Sindh reveals that media professionals are living in a state of war where 77% journalists feel unsafe.
Media professionals are balancing and handling the situation applying self-censorship on their journalistic jobs, as 26% exercise full self-censorship and 39% partially. The ill aspect of the scenario is that 43% of the journalists use the hammer of self-censorship to avoid judicial and legal constraints. This aspect of the situation is the most disappointing for the freedom of press and expression.
The trend not to register complaints (63%), discloses the fear and despair of journalists although the response rate is 57% and satisfaction scores the same. Most (57%) of the journalists go to editors for complaints against threats.
The review of the events and literature exploration also corroborate the unfavorable situation for media persons in Sindh. The killings, injuring, threatening, pressurizing and arresting of journalists adds hindrances for the journalist's community. It is very clear to say that the governmental, political, social and media owner's behavior is not hoping for a free press in the province of Sindh.

Recommendations
The whole media theater in Sindh needs a lot of attention in all aspects with special emphases on the security measures. The study recommends the following certain directives to for free and the media persons from the fear inculcated in them and to assure the convening of true, impartial and objective information to the citizens not paralyzed by Self-Censorship or enshrined in the folds of fear of adverse responses.
Rule of law should be insured to develop a sense of safety in journalists and Job security should be secured by law to lesser the fear for unemployment, prevailing in media persons. Measures are needed to avoid the threatening actors from being a sword on the necks of the watchdogs. For the purpose, media campaigns and regulations will be effective. Training should be arranged to encourage and educate journalists for their rights and responsibilities. Research is needed to explore all the aspects deteriorating the media landscape in the province of Sindh.