Pakistan media flays travel ban on journalist

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani media organisations and journalists’ groups have condemned the government’s decision to bar journalist Cyril Almeida from travelling abroad

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani media organisations and journalists’ groups have condemned the government’s decision to bar journalist Cyril Almeida from travelling abroad after he reported on differences of opinion between the civil and military leadership.

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The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and Amnesty International demanded the government immediately withdraw all restrictions on Almeida, who was included on the interior ministry’s Exit Control List (ECL), a document that includes people who cannot leave the country.

Almeida is an assistant editor with the Dawn newspaper, which said in an editorial on Wednesday the fallout of his report “has been intense”. While a media organisation can commit an error of judgement, the newspaper “believes it handled the story in a professional manner and carried it only after verification from multiple sources”, the editorial said.

The Dawn added it had twice carried denials from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Journalism has a long tradition of keeping its promise to its audience in the “face of enormous pressure… from the corridors of power” and some of the “most contentious yet historically significant stories” were told by news organisations while resisting the “state’s narrow, self-serving and ever-shifting definition of ‘national interest’”, the editorial said.

The editor of Dawn “bears sole responsibility for the story in question” and the government “should at once remove Mr Almeida’s name from the ECL and salvage some of its dignity”, the editorial said.

The editorial was well received and hundreds welcomed it on social media.

“This puts into perspective what has happened and what needs to be done,” said HRCP director Zohra Yusuf.

The Nation daily, in its editorial titled “How to lose friends and alienate people”, said it was “disturbing” when the civilian and military leadership “meet to lecture the media on how to do their job” while couching it in the “familiar and nauseating mantra of protecting ‘vital state interests’”.

A statement on Amnesty International’s website demanded that the media should be allowed to “operate freely and without fear”. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) too issued a statement supporting Almeida.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists joined the chorus of condemnation against the interior ministry and said the ban on Almeida’s travel should be lifted immediately.