Victimization and Hatred Against Journalist Fraternity in Hazara.

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: AMC Abbottabad <amcvoice@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, 30 March 2012, 21:18
Subject: victimization and hatred against journalist fraternity in Hazara.

Dear Journalists

It is to bring to your notice that the ANP led provincial government,

a self proclaimed protagonist of democracy, non-violence and freedom

of press, has been pursuing the politics of victimization and hatred

against journalist fraternity in Hazara.

Scared of ever intensifying movement for Hazara province, when the KPK

government failed to stop local media from representing the opinion of

hoi polloi, it chose to employ coercive methods against Hazara based

newspapers and the newsmen. The provincial government also used

temptation tools offering incentives to some selected journalists only

with malafide intention of pitting them against each other and

spoiling the peaceful atmosphere of relatively tranquil region of

Hazara.

ANP's hattered aginst Hazara based media can better be judged from two

years record of official advertisements released to different

newspapers of KPK through information department. And one can easily

draw inference that how "judiciously" ads are distributed among

newspapers depriving Hazara based dailies of their legal right.

Daily Hazara News Mansehra and Daily Nada I Khalq Haripur are the two

newspapers that remained the target of victimization during the last

two years and suffered a lot at the hands of leadership of a party

that claim to be the follower of Bacha Khan's ideology of non-violence

and equal rights.

This was not end to the politics of vendetta that the ANP has been

pursuing against newspapers and media persons of Hazara, but the in

response to a story based on a news conference the senior minister KPK

Bashir Ahmed Bilor submitted privilege motion against Daily Hazara

News and the privilege committee headed by Deputy Speaker KPK assembly

summoned its Editor in Chief Mr Ahmed Nawaz Jadoon on March 21, 2012.

While the fact of the matter is that Hazara News, some other local and

regional news papers carried a news item based on the press conference

of district president PPP Mansehra, Malik Sohrab Advocate who accused

Mr Bilor of siphoning funds to the tune of millions from the district

development fund to the projects of his blue eyed persons.

But only this newspaper was singled out and privilege motion filed

against its administration because of the reason it was courageously

representing the public opnion.

Likewise Dr Chan Mubarak Hazarvi, Editor in Chief Daily Nada I Khalq

Haripur was also implicated in a bogus criminal case for supporting

the cause of majority.

In its pursuit of bulldozing majority's demand of Hazara province, the

ANP's government has gone to the extent that it has started driving

wedge between the media persons and the journalists in Abbottabad,

Haripur and Battagram have reached to an eyeball to eyeball

confrontation during the last few months.

The newsmen who are not in the good book of ANP are disallowed to even

discharge their professional duties and the incident of March 24, 2012

in Abbottabad is a case in point of conspiracy theory of ANP that has

literally cultivated discord and hatred among the colleagues.

Heavy contingents of police were deployed at the main entrance of

Abbottabad press club and the journalist who are opposed to the

undemocratic and anti journalists' steps of provincial government were

barred from the coverage of Bashir Bilor's vist to press club.

The police also used force against the newsmen who later staged

protest against the administration. Naseer Khan Jadoon a bureau chief

of a local newspaper is also among the newsmen who were chargd in the

FIR for protesting the ban on the entry of newsman.

We the believers of constitutional right of freedom of expresson

request you all to please join hands with us for the protection of

universally guaranteed right by putting an end to the ANP's intrusion

in journalists' affairs. Otherwise the media even in the big urban

centers and other districts could also face the same situation we are

exposed to right now.

And if the growing trend of interference in the affairs of press clubs

and regional media remained unchecked the same way, the freedom of

press would be devised, defined and determined by the ruling parties

undemocratically outside the parliament.

 

 

 

Regards

 

Abbottabad Journalist Community

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