JournalismPakistan.com | Published April 25, 2019
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ISLAMABAD - The National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) on Thursday announced the nomination of focal persons in all provincial and federal police departments to collect data on crimes against journalists.
Member NCHR, Chaudhry Muhammad Shafique, made the announcement.
He spoke at the closing ceremony of a workshop with duty bearers on promoting the safety of journalists.
The NCHR also took up the issue of compensation to journalists killed in the line of duty in Balochistan.
The NCHR also announced initiating the process of establishing a federal and provincial level working group on freedom of expression and safety of journalists.
Chairperson NCHR, Justice (Retd) Ali Nawaz Chohan highlighted the vital role journalists are playing in Pakistan. He said their contribution is tremendous for humanity. “They are the voice of people. NCHR is always there to provide support to journalists. Freedom of expression and safety of journalists must be guarded in Pakistan.”
Keynote speaker Farhatullah Babar said that after the right to life, the most important right is freedom of expression. “You cannot demand any other right if you don’t have right to freedom of expression. Journalists are the frontline human rights defenders. They need special protection through a special law,” he said.
NCHR member Shafique said: “Unfortunately Pakistan doesn’t have any statistics available on the assassinations of journalists, therefore, it becomes very difficult to legislate in the absence of data.”
Raza Ali, Executive Director at Peace and Justice Network stressed upon the need for improving Pakistan’s indicators on the safety of journalists. He said that the assassination of the journalists is not directly linked with the freedom of expression.
While sharing 2019 data, he said that no journalist has been killed this year, but the freedom of expression has declined drastically. “On the other hand, in the last five years (2013-2018) 26 journalists have been assassinated, but only one conviction has been made. “Therefore there is a dire need to collect segregated data on killings of journalists with segregated data on its causes.”
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