Pakistan's fight against Islamist rebels is now extending to the media. Although in the past the Taliban in Pakistan and other radical groups have verbally attacked reports or news they disliked or disagreed with, in the present, those radicals are moving against those people who write the news.
Just this week, three journalists were killed in Pakistan. And the message is that the radicals are coming for them, one way or the other, until the free press is no more.
Most of the attacks have occurred in Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan. In that city, and the society at large, the attacks of radical groups against the press is not condemned as strongly as an attack on civilians in the streets.
Even worse, some people believe that media and journalists are free targets, since they are publishing or showing programs that are considered profane by many. This shift in sentiment in the people is almost as worrisome as the increased attack on the press. In some cases, and they are not too few, some actually advocate silencing the media and press for not being conservative enough.
The Taliban in Pakistan have even gone so far as to emit a fatwa in which they detail their intentions of wiping out the media, since they consider the free press culpable of distorting the news or purposely lying to put them in a bad light.
The greatest grudge however, comes from the press' insistence that the Taliban is looking to establish an Islamic state in Pakistan, which they are, and that since the press is against this goal, it must be destroyed or silenced.
In particular the fatwa has named names: 24 journalists are in the cross hairs already. The Taliban in Pakistan have also exhorted journalists to change profession or suffer the consequences, specifying that since they are capable of penetrating military installations, attacks on media buildings and offices should be a much easier endeavor.
More problematic than the turning public sentiment, and the radicalization of certain section of the Pakistani population, is the fact that most of the crimes against the journalists have not been investigated with the purpose of bringing anyone to justice. No one has been arrested for the attacks and none will be.
Source : Deutsche Welle/ 1.27.14
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