April 23, 2014
Pakistan Is Asked to Shut Down News Channel
Declan Walsh and Salman Masood
New York Times
LONDON — The attempted killing of a prominent Pakistani journalist has prompted a bruising public dispute between Pakistan’s powerful army spy agency and the largest media group that has exacerbated tense relations between the country’s civilian and military leaders.
In a first, the Defense Ministry on Tuesday requested that the government invoke media regulations to shut down a major news channel — in this case Geo, Pakistan’s largest television news station. The ministry accused Geo of running a “vicious campaign” against the military’s Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, or ISI.
Acrimony had been steadily building after Hamid Mir, a television anchor and Geo’s most famous journalist, was shot multiple times by unidentified gunmen as he was being driven to a television studio in Karachi on Saturday.
Mr. Mir survived the attack and is being treated for gunshot wounds to the chest and shoulder. But as he was still receiving emergency treatment, Geo prominently broadcast heated accusations from Mr. Mir’s brother, the journalist Amir Mir, who accused the ISI of being responsible for the attack.
During extended commentary, Geo also repeatedly broadcast a photograph of the ISI chief, Lt. Gen. Zahir ul-Islam, while a senior journalist employed by the station called for the general to resign.
Hamid Mir, whose pugnacious style has frequently stirred up controversy, has been a fierce critic of the military, and in February he privately told station managers that he had received a threat from ISI operatives about his work, according to the station. In November 2012, a bomb was found strapped to the underside of his car outside his home in Islamabad.
Even before the new dispute with Geo broke out, the military had been publicly bristling on several other fronts, including government concessions to the Pakistani Taliban during talks and the continuation of the treason trial of the country’s former military ruler, Pervez Musharraf.
On Tuesday, evidently, the generals decided they had had enough criticism.
In a four-page letter to the state-run Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, the Defense Ministry not only asked for Geo’s broadcasting license to be revoked, but called for the body to initiate criminal proceedings against Geo editors and management.
Hours later, the station appeared to be backtracking. A late-night Geo news show carried interviews with a number of people who criticized the station’s stance, apparently in an attempt to soften its criticism of the military. Asma Jahangir, the country’s foremost human rights campaigner, said the channel had acted in an “irresponsible” manner.
“I have also been critical of the ISI, but even I found it odd the way Geo broadcast the photo” of the director general of the directorate, she said.
Even before Geo began backing down, some other news outlets were piling on, accusing Geo of using the shooting to cynically gain viewers and further the interests of its owner, Mir Shakil ur-Rehman. A virtual media war erupted late last year over claims that the spy agency had covertly promoted a rival station in a bid to dilute Geo’s market dominance.
The government has set up a three-judge commission to investigate the attack on Mr. Mir, which has brought competing gestures from the country’s army chief, Gen. Raheel Sharif, and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. On Tuesday, General Sharif paid an unscheduled visit to ISI headquarters, in an unmistakable gesture of support for his embattled intelligence chief. A day earlier, Prime Minister Sharif visited Mr. Mir at his hospital room in Karachi.
The continuing court proceedings against Mr. Musharraf, widely seen as occurring at the behest of Mr. Sharif, have been a particular point of contention in recent months. The military sees the case as a threat to its prestige and authority, and has signaled that any attempt to convict Mr. Musharraf could have severe consequences.
Mr. Musharraf, who has been freed on bail, was flown to the port city of Karachi over the weekend, prompting new speculation that a plan was being put together to fly him out of Pakistan before the trial reached completion.
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