SUSPENDED Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir has reminded prime minister Imran Khan about a 2007 promise to uphold press freedom if he became the leader of the country.
Writing in The Guardian on Wednesday (2), Mir, who was taken off air from his regular programme on Monday (31), said, “Imran Khan and I used to fight for press freedom together in Pakistan.
“In November 2007, when then military ruler General Pervez Musharraf imposed a state of emergency and banned me from appearing on television, Khan was among the few politicians who stood by me.”
“When I become prime minister,” he promised, “journalists will have true press freedom,” Mir recalled Khan as telling him.
“I do want to ask prime minister Khan if he remembers the promise he made to me 14 years ago. Will he stand with journalists now, as he did then, or will he take the side of the enemies of press freedom?” Mir wrote in the paper.
Mir was suspended from his regular TV programme on Monday (1) after he spoke out at a protest for press freedom in Islamabad.
The Pakistan ministry has proposed a new law, ‘the Pakistan Media Development Authority ordinance 2021’.
“Under this law, all spaces for journalism would be subject to draconian provisions. A tribunal, appointed by the ministry and not the judiciary, would decide what can and cannot be said. Any content could be prohibited without notice or a hearing. Offenders would be punished by up to three years in prison and millions of rupees in fines. Banning me is just the beginning. There is a lot more to come,” Mir wrote.
He added, “This is the real tragedy of Pakistan today. The country is being run by unknown people. Everyone knows who they are, but no one dares identify them.”
Outlining assaults on journalists in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, Mir noted that in April, “my former colleague Absar Alam was shot while walking in a park. In July 2020, Matiullah Jan was abducted for several hours”.
While the Pakistani government claims that Islamabad is the safest city in the country, media watchdog Freedom Network Pakistan recently reported it had become the most dangerous city for the country’s journalists, Mir said.
Bob Blackman MP speaks during the event