"Extreme pressure" from government and military forces Pakistani daily to close down

[ahmeddsid]

"Extreme pressure" from government and military forces Pakistani daily to close down | Newswatch


Date: August 27, 2009 Author: Newswatch Desk
Violation: Harassed Subject: State Persecution, Conflict Journalism Region: Asia


An Urdu-languge daily Asaap has closed down after it came under “tremendous pressure” from the Pakistan government and the security forces which were controlling its offices both inside and out.

Editor, Abid Mir, speaking on the telephone from Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan told Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) that he had “published the last edition on August 18” as a result of the intimidiation.

“We are shocked by the control and intrusions on the part of the security forces that obstruct the running of the newspaper and constitute a violation of press freedom. The government is adding to the gang-related and Taliban threats with an unacceptable crackdown on journalists. We urge the Pakistani authorities to get this harassment by the security forces stopped and to allow journalists to carry on their work normally”, RSF reacted.

The editor described the Quetta offices as being under the "control of paramilitary security forces and intelligence personnel” for the past two weeks. Around dozens of soldiers from the paramiltary Frontier Corps were deployed inside and outside the offices to check on visitors and staff.

“Our staff are being checked going in and out of the offices and the safety of our team of reporters is very important to us. The security forces are watching both what we publish and what we are talking about”, Mir said, adding, “We consider it as a complete intrusion into our professional duty.”

The newspaper, which is highly critical of the government, explained these reasons for the shutdown to its readers in a front-page article in the final edition on August 18. The editor of Asaap told RSF that the provincial government had shown itself “helpless” and that any attempt to seek a legal remedy would be pointless in the face of the security forces.

Elswhere, several local organisations reported that the Frontier Corps forces on August 21 began a “siege” of the English-language daily the Baluchistan Express and the Urdu-language daily Azadi. The newspapers said that security agents were carrying out body searches and questioning staff going in and out of the premises.

Journalists in Baluchistan have faced constant danger since the start of the year. Jan Muhammad Dashti, owner and editor-in-chief of Asaap, was shot and seriously injured on February 23. A reporter with Dunya TV was hurt in a roadside bomb blast on April 10 and on April 11, a correspondent on the Baluchistan Express was killed. A journalist working in Quetta told RSF at the time that Baluchi journalists were being “targetted by the security forces”.

 

[Elmo]

The newspaper, which is highly critical of the government, explained these reasons for the shutdown to its readers in a front-page article in the final edition on August 18. The editor of Asaap told RSF that the provincial government had shown itself “helpless” and that any attempt to seek a legal remedy would be pointless in the face of the security forces.
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Asaap is Balochi for Fire and Water. It is well-known in the province for its nationalistic leanings, which made it at loggerheads with the government. It has given extensive coverage to nationalist-separatist viewpoints in the province and faced extreme pressure after Bugti's assassination as well.


Here's a piece by a Baloch journalist on the newspaper...

Bye bye Asaap Malik Siraj Akbar writes


By Malik Siraj Akbar

When the government of Balochistan banned the official advertisements of Daily Asaap, the newspaper said it did not care much because it still enjoyed freedom of expression.

When the government curtailed its freedom of expression by banning two books by Dr. Naseer Dashti, published by Asaap Publications, the undeterred newspaper management still insisted that it had lost nothing as long as its staff members remained alive and healthy.
When the chief editor of the newspaper, Jan Mohammad Dashti, along with his driver narrowly escaped an assassination attempt presumably by the state intelligence agencies on 23 February this year, the paper reiterated its commitment to uninterrupted publication.
Now, Asaap – the most vocal Urdu language newspaper of Balochistan – has suddenly flabbergasted us all. The newspaper has formally decided to shut down its publication for good. The decision has been taken in the wake of constant harassment. The offices of Asaap in Quetta and Turbat, two cities from where the newspaper was simultaneously published, have been under siege by the Frontier Corps (FC) and intelligence agencies for the past two weeks.
Asaap basically comes from two Balochi words Aas (fire) and aap (water). In journalistic context, it means the determination to bring truth (to the readers, of course) even if one has to walk on the fire.

Habatan Dashti, the acting editor-in-chief of the newspaper, told me that the agencies’ personnel had made it impossible for them to work. “They [the spies] used to stand inside and outside the gates of the newspaper office. Every visitor, including the staff members, were investigated, humiliated and often barred from entering the newspaper office,” he said, “the deployment of forces outside the newspaper office was complete intrusion of our professional responsibilities. They always wanted to provoke us so that our staff members shouted at them and provided the FC a chance to take action against our staff members.”

...............


For me, the closure of this extremely important newspaper entails personal suffering. I was one of the lucky people who began their writing career from this newspaper. I wrote my first column in Asaap from my home district Panjgur in 2003. We, Manzor Baloch (Quetta) Manzoor Izzat Baloch (Panjgur), Faisal Mengal (Quetta), Khalid Waleed Saifi (Turbat), Shakil Baloch (Panjgur), Ismail Baloch (Gwadar), Nusrat Afghani (Quetta), Rana Saeed Advocate (Quetta) and some others whose names may not remember right now, constituted the first batch of columnists of Asaap.
Writing for Asaap was a wonderful experience despite the pros and cones involved. It was the first newspaper that paid us all Rs. 200 for each articles. I was a student at the American English Language Center in Panjgur when I got the first payment for my articles. My friend Dr. Chakar Baloch and I went to TCS to collect my envelope. By that time, it was not less than an achievement to receive a TCS dispatch in the small town of Panjgur. It was often believed that TCS dispatches could only come for VVIPs of town.
“Oh wow! You have got a TCS dispatch,” yelled Dr. Baloch delightedly, “I have never received even a registered mail in my whole life time. I know he was joking but both of us enjoyed his sense of humor.
It was one of the happiest days of my life when I got paid for the first time for a write-up of mine.
Subsequently, Asaap agreed to give me a regular space for a column in the newspaper. I began to write a column called “Harat Kada” which used to appear three to four times a week. One thing that many people still remember about that column is my bearded photo that used to appear in the newspaper. Everyone, including editor-in-chief Waja Jan Dashti, called me ‘Maulana”.
Many of us, the young writers, also had our grievances against Asaap as our articles were often unnecessarily edited and they were different from what we had actually written when they were published.
I never knew how widely Asaap was read until I went to Turbat and Gwadar where many people knew me because of my “bearded columns”. However, many people were pleasantly surprised to see me without the long beard.
In a nutshell, Asaap gave many of us the courage to think differently. It gave birth to too many new journalists and writers. I feel sorry for our coming generation of Baloch writers who will surely be deprived of such a wonderful platform to be published and guided at an early age by senior journalists. In addition, Asaap also began printing a series of books comprising of the articles published in the same newspaper. It has brought out around two dozen books so far which has enabled many young Baloch writers to proudly identify themselves as ‘published writers’.
A few days before the assassination attempt on Dashti sahib, Hababatan, the nephew of the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, told me that Waja Dashti had wished that I should write the preface of one of these upcoming books. Because of my own laziness and the subsequent attack on Dashti sahib, I could not write the preface of the book. I will never be able to do that honorable job now.
The end of Asaap is in fact the closure of a school of journalism.
The newspaper continued its journey very proudly and confidently. It raised the voice of the Baloch people without any fear and favor even during the gruesome martial law days of General Pervez Musharraf. The turning point for Asaap was the publication of the list of missing persons issued by Baloch Liberation United Front (BLUF) which demanded the release of missing Baloch political workers in return of UNHCR official John Solecki. This remarkably irritated the government authorities.
“I told, Dashti, they will kill you,” confided a senior journalist with me, “he said “so what? I know they are behind me”. ”
The government was further disillusioned by the Asaap’s aggressive pursuance of the case of Zarina Marri.
It is highly regrettable that the newspaper was forced to close down not under a military regime but by a government headed by a party that flaunts its democratic credentials. It is still not too late to take notice of what actually happened with the press in Balochistan. Pakistan People’s Party has people like Sherry Rehman who have such tall moral standings that they can resign from top official positions but will not compromise on press freedom. Sherry Rehmans of PPP should try to find out why the FC officials were deployed inside and outside a newspaper office in Quetta. Is this what the government pays the FC for?
I am not sure the closure of Asaap will attract much criticism from journalists’ bodies across Pakistan. On the contrary, many people would be cheering this development. This move has, nonetheless, sent a very clear message to the Baloch media organizations that they will be shut one after the other.
Lastly, I know I am not the only one who will miss Asaap.

Ends.