Journalists in Balochistan work amid chaos and insecurity

The Baloch Hal

QUETTA: With the growing polarization on the political scene of Balochistan, threats to the lives and the freedom of journalists in the province are increasing day by day which has made journalism a dangerous profession.

These observations were made on the first day of a three-day long media training program held at Quetta Press Club by Balochistan Institute for Development (BID) with the collaboration of National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Journalists of print and media working in different districts of Balochistan are attending the workshop which is intended to sensitize the participants about human rights and democracy-related issues which fail to gain ample space in the local and national newspapers.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the workshop on Monday morning, senior journalist and editor of Daily Intekhab Anwar Sajidi said the society in Balochistan was more polarized today than ever before. Differences between the government and the opposition and rifts among the nationalists had increased the level of pressure on the journalists who were expected by all the parties to give equal coverage in the newspapers. In case of failure of journalists to cover a certain political party’s activities one would have to bear dire consequences. The governments in Balochistan have always tried to muzzle the local press by using the official advertisements as a powerful tool while the political parties have burnt the newspaper copies or intercepted the newspapers’ dispatches in their respective districts in order to demonstrate their undemocratic attitude.

“Right now, the government has lost its writ everywhere in the country,” said the veteran newspaper editor while talking on “Relations between the media and the government, “the government is too corrupt to tolerate media criticism. We live in a post-anarchy situation. People in Balochistan are very annoyed with Islamabad. We do not see reports of public demands from the Baloch population to the government for any kind of developmental projects. There is a depressing phase of our history. ”

Sajidi, while commenting o the state of affairs in Balochistan, said public disillusionment had remarkably increased in the recent times. People had lost interest in reading the press releases and statements of the moderate political parties. There is a greater demand for the news of Baloch insurgents, he observed.

“Our dilemma as a newspaper with a moderate editorial approach is that the government bills us anti-state while the Baloch nationalists do not own us due to what they see as our moderate stance towards the government. A minister said once on the floor of the Balochistan Assembly that if we stop the publication of certain newspapers then we will find out that there is no insurgency taking place in Balochistan. Our commitment is with the people of Balochistan who never stopped reading us,” he stated.

The seasoned journalist appreciated the role of district reporters and termed them as the “backbone of newspapers”. He admired Balochistan Institute for Development for bringing journalists from all over Balochistan on a single platform to train them and stressed on the need for more cooperation among the journalists working at district level.

“There was a time when there was no local media. The only source of information for the people of Balochistan were the newspapers printed from Karachi or the ones owned by non-locals. There was no coverage of the local political parties and popular leaders in those newspapers. The local journalists strived to change these trends. There are still a lot of hardships which prevent us from working independently,” he added.

Sajidi regretted the insufficient coverage of Balochistan in the national media. According to him, the national media divided Balochistan in two parts i.e Quetta and rest of Balochistan. While reports pertaining to Quetta were often published and aired in different media houses, news from rest of Balochistan has still not made inroads in the national media as it still failed to recognize rest of Balochistan as an entity.

Senior journalist and former president of Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ) Shahzada Zulfiqar disagreed with the oft-repeated notion that the media in Pakistan was completely free. He held the view that reporters’ news stories and reports entirely depended on the likes and dislikes of the newspaper owners for their publication. The quandary for the reporters is either to succumb to the pressures of corporate media or give up their jobs.

“Journalists in Balochistan face a lot of threats from different directions. Many journalists have been summoned in the past by the government and sensitive state intelligence agencies for ‘friendly advice’. Threats are there, yet a vast majority of journalists has not surrendered before the horrific circumstances,” he remarked.

BIFD project director and the editor of the Baloch Hal, Malik Siraj Akbar, said journalists needed to give up solely covering official functions and activities. They should focus more on human rights issues in their write-ups as Balochistan was a province confronted with multiple serious issues such as the enforced disappearances. Journalists should read regularly relevant material to become acquainted with the conventions and international treaties our governments have signed in different phases of the history to guard human rights but still disregard the same conventions.

“Media has to work as a watch dog on the failure of the government to guard the basic human rights which have been protected by the constitution of Pakistan,” he observed.

The three-day media workshop is being attended by journalists from Quetta, Kalat, Kharan, Panjgur, Turbat, Gwadar, Qila Abdullah, Sherani, Chagai, Khuzdar, Noshki, Mastung and students of Mass Communication at the University of Balochistan.

On the second day of the workshop, a dialogue would be held among the journalists and representatives of various political parties on the relationship between political parties and the media.

Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal, secretary general of Pashtunkhawa Milli Awami Party, Dr. Ishaq Baloch, senior vice president of National Party, Agha Hassan Baloch, secretary information Balochistan National Party, Abdul Khaliq Hazara, secretary general of Hazara Democratic Party and Shahzaib Baloch of Baloch National Front are expected to speak at the dialogue being held on the second day of the workshop.