Reporters without Borders has just issued a report titled Press Freedom in 2007 in which they categorically pinpoint Pakistan as one of the most deadly countries in the world for journalists. The report goes on to identify the number of people killed in the world where 47 were in Iraq, 8 in Somalia and six in Pakistan.
Six journalists were killed in Pakistan, where suicide attacks and heavy fighting between the army and Islamist militants partly accounted for 2007s higher toll. Muhammad Arif, of TV station Ary One World, was among 133 people killed in the suicide attack on opposition leader Benazir Bhuttos motorcade in Karachi in October. Another such attack aimed at a government minister in April killed 28 people, including young freelance photographer Mehboob Khan.
Noor Hakim, of the Urdu daily Pakistan and vice-president of the Tribal Union of Journalists (TUJ), was killed in June in the northwestern Bajaur Agency tribal area. Javed Khan, a cameraman with DM Digital TV, was killed while covering an attack in July on Islamabads Red Mosque by security forces.
The report goes on to identify the total number of arrests as being 885 globally which is unsurprisingly being lead with 195 arrests in Pakistan alone, the highest worldwide.
Is this the same promise of an Enlightened Moderation and a free media that Pervez Musharraf so passionately used to praise, until his romance took a sharp decline with his catastrophic blunder on March 9th where he dismissed the Chief Justice of Pakistan. I sincerely hope 2008 will be better for us all