ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has been declared among the top ten most dangerous countries of the World for Journalists.
Pakistan is now the ninth-worst country in the world for journalists as opposed to the seventh-worst in 2017. It has been leapfrogged by Afghanistan, which went through a blood-soaked election, and Colombia, the home to narco-wars.
These are the countries where journalists get killed and the killers go free, according to CPJ’s 2018 #ImpunityIndex link:
Somalia Syria Iraq South Sudan The Philippines Afghanistan Mexico Colombia Pakistan Brazil Russia Bangladesh#EndImpunity link link link link
— Committee to Protect Journalists (@pressfreedom) October 29, 2018 link
Therefore, it is not much of an improvement and Pakistan remains a country where journalists risk injury, death, kidnapping or detention in their efforts to hold those in power or authority to account.
According to Freedom Network’s report link, at least 26 journalists have been killed for their work during the last five years. However, only 16 of these cases went to court for trial of which prosecution was concluded in six cases and conviction handed in just one case.