Freedom Network

In October 2013, many will still remember, a minor girl was picked up from a hospital courtyard in Lahore in Punjab, raped and then let go. Albeit in terrible shape, she survived. The kidnapping was caught on tape and aired repeatedly by all current affairs TV channels for days. Much ... Read More »

Pakistan is one of few Muslim countries where the media has become powerful in recent years and exercises a fair degree of independence in freedom of expression. But divisions within the journalists’ community pose challenges to press freedom, while journalists also face serious security threats.     Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ... Read More »

When speaking of journalism, one can always find the most lucrative of definitions and imagine a field that is dynamic and purposeful with a degree of impact. Many students pursuing journalism degree visualize public good and the driving motive behind such an ambition is the media landscape of Pakistan. Journalists ... Read More »

The Pakistani state has launched its most serious attempt yet to retake North Waziristan Agency (NWA) of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and clear it of Taliban and Al Qaeda and dramatically reduce their strategic and tactical ability to hold the state hostage. Twin ground and air assaults are ... Read More »

When it came to media, it seems that former ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, lacked prudence and invested in quick fixes — a seemingly inoperable Right to Information law and an influx of consumer finance products to cosmetically makeover an otherwise declining economy. What is commonly referred to as ‘liberalisation of ... Read More »

Few in Afghanistan will question the positive role local media played in bringing seven million voters to the polling stations in the April 5, 2014 presidential and provincial elections. No doubt it has weaknesses of its own, but the mere fact that absence of the maddening race for ‘breaking news’ ... Read More »

There are two types of traitors. The first type joins hands with foreign enemies and helps enslave his own people. Among the most prominent names in this category is Syed Jaffar Ali Khan, the chief of Sirajuddaullah’s army. Today, Mir Jaffar’s name is synonymous with treachery. Because of his treachery, ... Read More »

What happened within the media world in the country after the murderous attack on April 19, 2014, on one of Pakistan’s most powerful voices in the media, Hamid Mir, was shocking and disappointing for the journalist community. It has never been seen that media practitioners will stoop so ‘low’ in ... Read More »

The space is shrinking for independent journalism in Pakistan because of continuous violence against journalists by militants and state agencies. The attack on Hamid Mir, Pakistan’s most respected journalist, proves this again. Mir survived an assassination attempt in Karachi on April 19, 2014. An unidentified gunman targeted him as he traveled ... Read More »

Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), though facing some organizational problems these days, has an unprecedented history of struggle from 1950 to date. However, the two greatest movements to its credit were the 10-day complete shutdown of newspapers in the country for better wages in 1970 and the March 1978 ... Read More »