Pakistani Press Fears Being Silenced
Pakistani plainclothes policemen arrest a lawyer during a protest in Lahore on Nov. 5.
Pakistani plainclothes policemen arrest a lawyer during a protest in Lahore on Nov. 5.
Pakistani riot police beat a lawyer during a protest in Lahore on Nov. 5.
With protests and arrests continuing in Pakistan, police in Karachi moved to shut down the News International in Karachi yesterday, but management forced them to back down.
Journalists and lawyers have been at the center of the demonstrations, marching against the state of emergency declared this weekend by President Pervez Musharraf.
Kamal Siddiqi, editor of the News International, says hundreds of press workers and journalists assembled at the printing press and made sure the paper went out. Siddiqi says reporters and editors are struggling against edicts from the government about what they can and cannnot say. "We've got a written order that we cannot write anything against the president, the office of the prime minister, and also things against the national interest," Siddiqi says. "These are very gray areas for us to who interprets what is national interest."
Siddiqi says his paper has continued publishing reports about the unrest. Police continue to arrest attorneys protesting the suspension of the nation's constitution. Many of the arrests have involved physical force. The editor says he and his colleagues have been stunned by the ferocity of the attacks. "Policemen are going all out and beating up lawyers and journalists whenever they get the chance."
Earlier: Kamal Siddiqi tells what happened when the police showed up at his office.
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