A global media rights group has asked Pakistani authorities to investigate the killing of a journalist and step up protection for the media amid growing attacks on journalists and freedom of the press.
Earlier this month, Jam Saghir Ahmed Lar, a correspondent for the Daily Khabrain newspaper, an Urdu language newspaper which has readership across the country, was shot and killed in the central Punjab province.
The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urged Pakistani authorities for “swift” and “transparent” investigations into the killing and determine whether “it was linked to his journalism.”
“The heinous killing of journalists and its impunity must end in Pakistan. The government must step up protection for the media and ensure journalists can report without fear of reprisals,” Beh Lih Yi, CPJ Asia programme coordinator, said in a statement late Friday.
Complaints of attacks, intimidation and online abuse against journalists critical of the army have become common in Pakistan.
Last month, more than 40 journalists and YouTubers were summoned by authorities for questioning over their criticism of superior court judges.
Since 1992, 64 journalists have been killed in connection with their work in Pakistan, CPJ’s data shows.
The country ranked 11th on CPJ’s 2023 Global Impunity Index, which ranks countries by how often killers of journalists go unpunished.