Pakistan blacklists, expels global journalists' group leader

Agencies

October 18, 2019

Islamabad, Oct 18: Pakistan blacklisted and expelled the Asia coordinator of global press freedom group the Committee to Protect Journalists, the group's executive director said Friday.

Joel Simon called the expulsion of Steven Butler "baffling" and "a slap in the face" to those concerned about press freedom in Pakistan.

Butler was refused entry at the Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore despite having a valid visa and was returned to the United States. Butler said he was told he was on "a stop list of the Interior Ministry." The Pakistani government had no immediate comment Friday.

"Pakistani authorities should give a full explanation of their decision to bar Butler from entering and correct this error," Simon said in a statement issued by the CPJ. "If the government is interested in demonstrating its commitment to a free press, it should conduct a swift and transparent investigation into this case."

Butler was planning to attend the Asma Jahangir Conference- Roadmap for Human Rights in Pakistan. The conference this weekend is named for a renowned Pakistani human rights activist who died last year of a heart attack. Butler had been a regular visitor to Pakistan, working with journalists' groups throughout the country.

His expulsion at the airport "reinforces our deep and growing concerns about press freedom in the country," Simon told The Associated Press. Pakistani journalists have come under increasing censorship in the past year.

Websites have been shut down, including the Urdu website of the US government-funded Voice of America, after it reported on an ethnic Pashtun tribal movement that's been critical of military operations in regions bordering Afghanistan. Mashaal Radio, affiliated with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has also been shut down.

Leading newspapers, including the well-respected English-language Dawn Newspaper, have come under pressure, its distributers harassed and prevented from delivering the newspapers.

Journalists and journalist advocacy groups blame the military and its powerful intelligence agency, which they say are seeking to quash critical coverage in general as well as any coverage of the Pashtun movement against the military's war on terror, particularly in the tribal regions.

The military has denied it is involved in censorship.

"There is no media censorship through ISPR (Inter-Services Public Relations) or ISI," the country's main intelligence agency, said military spokesman Gen. Asif Ghafoor in an earlier written response to questions from AP.

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Cut all ties with Israel and impose arms, trade embargo; history will record our action: Iran to Muslim countries

News Network

May 5,2024

Iran has urged Muslim countries to cut all relations with the Israeli regime as means of pressuring Tel Aviv to end its ongoing genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks on Saturday, addressing the 15th Heads of State and Government Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Gambia’s capital Banjul.

“Beyond doubt, this time period will also pass by, despite all its hardships and adversities for the Palestinian nation,” he said.

“However, the manner and quality of the role that is played by us, Muslim states, in the face of this crisis will go down in history,” the top diplomat added.

“Undoubtedly, severance of diplomatic and economic ties and [imposition of] practical arms and trade embargo [on Israel] serves as an important means of cessation of its genocide in Gaza and atrocities in the West Bank and the Noble al-Quds.”

At least 34,654 people have died in Gaza since October 7, when the Israeli regime began the war in response to al-Aqsa Storm, a retaliatory operation by the coastal sliver’s resistance groups.

Despite the unabated campaign of bloodshed and destruction, the regime has so far fallen short of realizing its goals, including defeating Gaza’s resistance, causing forced displacement of the territory’s entire population to neighboring Egypt, and enabling the release of those who were taken captive during al-Aqsa Storm.

Amir-Abdollahian said Gaza’s developments proved that elimination of the Palestinian resistance “was nothing but an illusion.”

“Because the Israeli regime is not a legitimate government. It is only an occupying apartheid power,” he said, adding, “Passage of time is not going to lend legitimacy to an occupying power.”

The foreign minister asserted that realization of sustainable peace and security in the region was only possible through cessation of the regime’s occupation of Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon, return of the Palestinian refugees to their homeland, and manifestation of Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

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