PAKISTAN: Media Under Siege: IPS

Faisal Aziz (Association of TV Journalists) and Shamimur Rehman (Karachi Union of Journalists) at a sit-in protest. (Beena Sarwar/IPS)

KARACHI - From being the liberal President under whom Pakistan’s independent electronic media was born and flourished, Pervez Musharraf is now seen as the military general who imposed emergency rule on Nov 3 and suspended the Constitution and the independent judiciary.

Musharraf also blocked all independent television channels on the cable network. There were police raids on media organisations, printing presses and bureau offices and detentions of journalists.

For many, Musharraf’s ham-handed dealing with the media over the past year, and particularly the last couple of weeks, evokes bitter memories of the late Gen. Ziaul Haq’s martial law with its strict media censorship and ‘press advice’.

Newspapers in protest published blank spaces where material had been censored. Dissenting journalists were arrested and some were even flogged.

Musharraf has been comparatively benign.But this is a very different era, where independent news and views and a continuous flow of information had become the norm. In Zia’s time, there were only a handful of independent newspapers, hardly a threat, given the abysmally low 30 per cent literacy rate. Musharraf has had to contend with the independent electronic media with a huge outreach.

Until now, his claim that he gave the media more freedom than ever before was true to an extent, say journalists, but it is a freedom they have fought for, and it has come with a price.

"An explosion in the number of independent TV channels boosted pluralism and the quality of news," noted the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders in its annual report of 2007.

Simultaneously, since Pakistan’s involvement as a frontline state against the ‘war on terror, "the security forces radicalised their methods of repression: a score of journalists were kidnapped and tortured by the military." Almost two dozen have been killed in different incidents since.

On Nov 3, PEMRA (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) officials invaded the independent FM radio station Mast 103.6’s Karachi office with a heavy police contingent.

They forced it to close transmission and confiscated its broadcast equipment, citing the station’s broadcast of its hourly news bulletins and current affairs programmes from BBC as the reason. In 2004 too, PEMRA had sealed the popular radio network’s Lahore and Karachi stations.

The outspoken Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (www.pfuj.info) which has a long history of struggle for media freedom, termed the present situation "one of the worst kind of repression against the media since 1978". The union has called for an ongoing series of protests, meetings and demonstrations until the media restrictions were lifted and all the channels restored.

"In the Zia days, we would protest in groups of four and chant slogans against the martial law and media restrictions. We would court arrest peacefully, and the police would pick us up," recalled Nasir Zaidi who works for the ‘The News’ in Islamabad. Section 144, the law the government routinely invokes to prohibit public gatherings of more than four persons, was then in force around the country -- as it is once again.

In 1978, Zaidi, then a frail young reporter with the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), was arrested and flogged for protesting against the closure of the daily Musawat (a paper sympathetic to the Pakistan People’s Party of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the elected prime minister whom Gen. Zia had overthrown).

"We were isolated then. The biggest difference now is the number of people supporting the journalists. It’s a mass movement, there’s a lot of commitment and participation, particularly of the younger people," he told IPS.

Over a hundred journalists offered themselves for mass arrest in Karachi on Nov 20 after the police attacked them with batons, refused to let them march to the Governor House to present a memorandum, and arrested their leaders.

Police have attacked and arrested journalists demonstrating all over the country over the last couple of days, from Gotki and Hyderabad in Sindh province, to Faisalabad in the Punjab, and Quetta in the western province of Balochistan.

Zaidi attributes the new energy largely to the TV channels. "They tend to employ younger people, most of whom are very progressive. They see these Black Laws (the new PEMRA ordinances) as a direct attack on press freedom."

The Pakistan Association of Television Journalists has 621 members around the country, 307 in the business capital Karachi alone.

"Most are less than 35 or 40 years old," estimated Faisal Aziz Khan, the 33-year old secretary general of the association, talking to IPS at the old sandstone Karachi Press Club building where he participated in a hunger-strike as part of PFUJ’s ongoing series of protests.

Geo News, Pakistan’s first and largest 24-hour news channel, for which the young reporter and television host has worked since its launch in 2002, is part of the country’s largest media company, the Jang Group which owns several newspapers and magazines. Its television network broadcasts from Media City, a free-zone in Dubai from where it beams to a satellite network.

After Nov. 3 when PEMRA got cable operators in Pakistan to block the independent channels, the independent channels continued to reach viewers via streaming through the Internet and satellite transmission throughout the shutdown despite huge revenue losses due to loss of local advertising.

By Nov 16, most had capitulated and were back on air, having agreed to conditions like the government’s new "code of conduct" drawn up in June by the Pakistan Broadcasters Association. Some agreed to drop certain popular talk show hosts or anchors. Geo and ARY refused.

"Everyone wants Geo back on air," said Abdul Jabbar, who lives in Korangi, a semi-slum in Karachi. "We don’t know what’s going on.

PTV (the state-owned Pakistan Television) only gives one side of the story. Geo was reporting very openly, giving all sides. What is the government trying to hide?"

The Musharraf regime in a dramatic development got the Dubai government, on Nov. 17, to order these channels to stop broadcast from Media City. The ban has hit Geo the hardest. The network alleges that it is being targeted specifically in order to cripple it financially, with estimated daily financial losses at half a million to a million dollars.

"They asked us to get rid of three or four specific people, and also some people on the print side," said Mir Ibrahim Rehman, the young CEO of Geo. His family owns Pakistan’s largest-selling newspaper, the daily Urdu-language Jang, besides the English daily ‘The News’ and several other publications.

Rehman estimates that the print side has suffered a 30-40 percent decline in revenues after the government pulled all its advertisements and pressurized private advertisers to do the same.

"This is financial murder," he added. The Geo management has gone to court to get at least the non-news channels back on air. The case is pending before the Sindh High Court.

The blocking of these channels generated widespread outrage.

Pakistani expatriates and advocates of free expression around the world have offered to get the news out, through cell phone messages, helping them to hook up with satellite dish networks from New Jersey, USA, to Bangkok, Thailand, putting up video feeds and streaming on various websites, ranging from Human Rights Watch to blogs like www.supportpakistan.org.

"We are going to continue demanding that the government take back the new ordinances and restore all the channels, radio and TV," said Huma Ali, president of the PFUJ and editor of the daily Urdu language ‘Din’ newspaper.

Talking to IPS from Islamabad, he added, "This is not a fight of journalists alone, but of all of civil society, all those who want democracy."

"Unless freedom of expression is ensured, there can be no democracy," said Shamimur Rehman, a senior reporter for daily ‘Dawn’ and president of the Karachi Union of Journalists sitting at the Karachi Press Club hunger-strike camp on Nov 11 under the watchful eye of armed police and rangers who have virtually laid siege to the club since Nov 3. Rehman was among the first journalists to be arrested on Nov. 20.

"It is about the right to live in a civilized society. The real fight is against the extremists," commented Owais Tohid, who heads a new English language channel launched by Geo. Tohid led the twenty one journalists from Geo English who courted arrest on Nov 20 in Karachi in solidarity with detained colleagues like Shamimur Rehman.

The crisis for the first time in almost two decades is bringing together the stakeholders. Media owners, broadcast as well as print, are setting aside their rivalries, and patching up differences with working journalists.

"The most positive thing I can see is the cooperation developing between the publishers, broadcasters and the working journalists," said Kanak Mani Dixit, editor of the Nepali Himal Southasian, who was in Pakistan recently on behalf of the International Federation of Journalists. "This unity is important to keep media freedom alive." (Beena Sarwar/IPS)

Bomb Blasts Add to Journalists' Risks: IPS

KARACHI, Oct 26 (IPS) - When TV cameraman Arif Khan added to the list of over 140 people who died in the bombings that targeted the welcome procession for former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, on Oct. 18, it highlighted the many risks that journalists in Pakistan now face.

Bhutto took special notice of Khan in her press conference the following day, while paying homage to the 'shuhada' (martyrs) and expressing sympathy for their families: "I did see the cameraman who lost his life. He was on the police van next to us, and I could see that he was very active."

Enthusiasm for his work and a propensity for being near the centre of activity cost Khan his life, as colleagues noted at a condolence meeting at the Karachi Press Club last week. "Arif Khan has become a symbol for the freedom of expression, for which he gave his life," observed Javed Chowdhry, secretary general of the Karachi Union of Journalists.

Perched on the police van next to the Pakistan Peoples’ Party chairperson’s armoured vehicle, Khan, a father of six, typifies the journalist killed in the line of duty in what is an increasingly violence prone country.

"Most stories now involve a certain amount of risk. The subjects either try to play to the camera or break it," said Syed Talat Hussain, executive director of news and current affairs at Aaj TV.

Hussain has first-hand experience of such violence. Armed gangs prowling the streets to prevent the then suspended Chief Justice from coming to Karachi attacked the Aaj office on May 12 this year as the channel provided live coverage of the situation.

Television viewers were shocked to see Hussain continuing to feed information to the anchor as he and his colleagues ducked behind desks to save themselves from a continuous hail of bullets.

There have been such attacks before but this was the first to be broadcast live. Attackers have included police, who smashed their way into the Geo TV office in Islamabad earlier this year, as well as armed gangs with various affiliations.

Media offices have been fired at and set ablaze. For good measure, rampaging mobs have smashed the windows of journalists’ cars parked outside, unhindered.

The risks have multiplied manifold over the last few years. A report in the U.S. weekly ‘Newsweek’ of Oct. 20, 2007 terms Pakistan the most dangerous country on earth -- Iraq notwithstanding -- and lists a series of contributing factors such as political instability, a network of radical Islamists, widespread anti-Western anger and the country’s nuclear-armed status.

Journalists face the same dangers as any other citizen -- and more, because their profession thrusts them into high-risk situations. In this they are like policemen and security guards, but unlike security personnel they have no weapons, safety equipment or specialised training. This makes them increasingly vulnerable in case of bomb blasts, for instance, where they are not the direct target, but can become victims.

"Bomb blasts will happen. We are professionals, we have to get out and do our job," said Munizae Jahangir, who reports for NDTV, an Indian TV channel. She was climbing up Bhutto’s armoured vehicle when the first blast happened. Expecting a second blast, she and her cameraman fled and, seconds later, another blast went off right where they had been standing.

Unharmed, but shaken and spattered with blood and bits of human flesh, she told IPS: "You know the risks. You know you can die. But what if you lose a limb or become incapacitated in some way? That’s the worst thought."

Besides killing Arif Khan, the blasts seriously injured two other journalists, both from CNBC Pakistan. Salman Farooq, a cameraman, received serious leg injuries while a reporter, Shehzad, is still lying in a critical condition in a Karachi hospital.

"If the blasts had happened when Benazir’s vehicle was near a media truck, many more journalists would have been injured or killed," conjectured Mazhar Abbas, secretary-general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and one of this year’s International Press Freedom Awardees as announced by the New-York-based media freedom watchdog, Committee to Protect Journalists.

Talking to IPS on telephone from Islamabad, Abbas said the tremendous growth of the electronic media in Pakistan has made cameramen and reporters more susceptible. For one thing, their numbers have drastically increased; 100 to 150 journalists are present at any function. Secondly, the pressure to obtain exclusive visuals pushes cameramen and television reporters closer and closer to the centre of the unfolding story.

This vulnerability became starkly apparent in April 2006 when a bomb ripped apart a wooden stage set up for a prayer meeting at Karachi’s Nishtar Park. Over 50 people were killed, including most of the top leadership of the religious organisation, Jamaat-e-Ahle Sunnat, which had set up the meeting.

Among the scores injured were a dozen journalists. Shoaib Khan, a photographer for a local Urdu-language daily, lost an eye. He was left partially paralysed, bereft of speech. His situation highlighted the issue of insurance for journalists covering risky events: it is practically non-existent.

"His organisation dumped him. They didn’t even pay that month’s salary," said Abbas. "Medicine is expensive. Even the eye operation he still needs has been delayed due to financial problems."

"We have to wake up to the reality that Pakistan is a dangerous place, and this is not going to end," said Tahir Ikram, director of programmes at CNBC Pakistan. "We need to provide specialised training to our journalists."

Pakistan has no foundations to look after journalists like Shoaib Khan or their families. A few large media groups in Pakistan do provide some life and accident insurance, but most do not provide special training or safety equipment to correspondents.

Some 21 journalists have been killed in Pakistan since President Gen. Pervez Musharraf took over power in 1999. "An explosion in the number of independent TV channels boosted pluralism and the quality of news," noted the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in its annual report of 2007.

"But the security forces radicalised their methods of repression: a score of journalists were kidnapped and tortured by the military. The situation is worst of all in the tribal areas (along the border with Afghanistan)."

The murder of tribal reporter Hayatullah Khan in June 2006 after being kidnapped six months earlier by ‘unknown’ men brought the media situation in Pakistan under sharp focus, provoking protests in the country and around the world.

"The case underlined the brutality of security forces towards journalists who take too close an interest in what goes on in the tribal areas and in Baluchistan," noted RSF.

Cameraman Munir Sangi, was shot dead in May 2006 while covering tribal clashes in the southern Sindh province. In July, two more TV cameramen were seriously injured on the first day of the military’s onslaught on Islamabad’s Red Mosque where militants were holed up.

Rushed to hospital, one of them, Javed Khan, died during surgery. The other, Israr Ahmed remains in critical condition with spinal cord injuries.

Given this situation, Talat Hussain, from Aaj TV, told IPS that journalists will have to modify their recording and shooting techniques. "We’ll have to use distant lenses, wireless microphones, and the reporter will have to go in, get the quote and get out," he said.

With elections coming up the situation can only worsen. "There will be stages, rallies, meetings… and journalists have to be there," said Mazhar Abbas.

He reiterated PFUJ’s demands for media owners to provide life insurance, safety equipment and specialised conflict-reporting training. "When they’re already spending so much, media organisations should spend a bit more and do this too."

BURMA: Media-in-Exile Examine Strengths, Weaknesses: IPS

BANGKOK, Oct 18 (IPS) - Exiled Burmese journalists are now feeling the pressure to fill the information vacuum about events in their country in the weeks following the military’s clampdown on citizen journalists and on pro-democracy protesters there.

There is now just a trickle of news where there was free flow of information via blogs, videos, photos, phone calls and text messages from people inside Burma that international news media depended on until late September, when the military on Sep. 26 broke up rallies and raided monasteries to quell weeks of protests led by monks.

Although the government has eased its tight hold on the Internet and opened communication lines once again, the seed of fear has apparently been sown.

"People are too afraid to talk on the phone as the lines are tapped. We can still call some numbers but these are very limited calls. Many people can still use email but they are careful because these too are being monitored," said Aung Naing, chief editor of the Thailand-based Network Media Group, which distributes news to Burmese-language radio programmes of media outfits as Radio Free Burma and the Democratic Voice of Burma.

For Aye Chan Naing, director of the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma, the suppression of both the voices of the public and of journalists in Burma has made the double-checking of information all the more difficult.

"While we still have regular communication with our reporters on the ground, getting accurate information is getting to be a challenge," he said. But people are still turning to shortwave radio to listen to broadcasts by the Burmese media abroad.

"The military may be aware of this, but this does not prevent people from listening to the BBC, Democratic Voice of Burma or Radio Free Asia," said Network Media Group editor Moe Zaw.

All these stations can be accessed via shortwave radio at certain times of the day. At best, they get more information from sources in the border areas. The challenge now is for these exiled media organisations to protect their sources and keep them out of harm's way, explained Aung Naing.

What is quite alarming for Aye Chan Naing is that journalists in Burma, particularly the underground network of journalists that ‘smuggle’ information out, are now the next targets of the junta, called the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

"We are very worried about their situation within the country. (We have received reports that) some pro-regime journalists are giving authorities information about their colleagues in the media who covered the recent protests (last week of September) in Rangoon," he told IPS.

While there is no solid evidence of pro-government journalists turning against their fellow media members, Aung Naing believes this is quite possible.

"Government control is too strong and they have been known to use journalists working for state-run media to help them hunt down anti-government journalists," said the former student activist who fled to Thailand after the 1988 crackdown on pro-democracy student protesters where more than 3,000 people were killed.

For the India-based editor of ‘Mizzima News’, Soe Myint, recent events have negatively affected the morale of local Burmese journalists whose lives are now being threatened.

"The regime has basically made the journalists and activists 'hostage' in its last efforts to hold on to power, using any means to ensure its own survival," he said.

"We always keep in mind the safety of our network of journalists. This is our utmost priority," he told IPS.

He, however, cautions people against letting down their guard in the wake of government's relaxing Internet restrictions, intimating that this could be a ploy to trace those who send information to the outside world via the Internet.

Learning from the lessons of the September protests, Aung Naing sees the need for journalists both in and outside Burma to develop their information technology (IT) skills.

We've seen how IT played a big role in the recent events, unlike in the 1988 protests,” he explained.

“We now know that most of the information about the demonstrations that were picked up by the news media worldwide came from tech-savvy teenagers who made full use of the new media during those critical times.”

Exiled Burmese media groups will be assessing their situation at the Burmese Media Conference in November, to be held in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai.

Burma News international, a network of 10 media in exile organisations, is also expected to discuss new reporting strategies in its regular conference.

"We will discuss how we can develop the Burmese media more and how we can make use of new communication technologies to improve reporting from within and outside Burma," said Aung Naing.

"We need to be able to learn more IT skills, use software and programmes available to us." But lest people start to expect too much from exiled journalists, Aye Chan Naing says he does not think that the exiled media alone can bring democracy and freedom back to Burma. These have to come from the people inside Burma, he said.

For Moe Zaw, objective reporting remains the exiled media’s priority. "Most of our news reflect the real situation. The exiled media, because of their different backgrounds, have different 'leanings'.

Some journalists, because of their political backgrounds, are more involved in pro-democracy ideas," he said.

Aung Naing agrees, saying that the style of reporting and the choice of stories are different among the exiled media. Some want to be more objective in their reporting while some are more 'involved', he added. But one thing is clear, and that is "most of the exiled media are pushing for change".

"To my knowledge, there is no alliance of exiled media formed to bring down the dictatorship as a united front. We all report on the news and what is happening in Burma, including pro-democracy movements. It is only right that we should let people decide for themselves and not to try to influence them based on what we want to happen,” explained Aye Chan Naing.

“Otherwise, we won't be any different from the Burmese government media,” he stressed. (Lynette Lee Corporal)

BURMA: With Technology as Weapon, Citizens Become Reporters: IPS Asia-Pacific

BANGKOK - In sharp contrast to the lack of information during the 1988 military crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Burma, streams of graphic accounts of the biggest uprising in two decades continue to come from within the country, aided by technology and the Internet.

This has also seen something of a reversal of roles in providing information from a country that for many years, has taken great pains to limit easy access to the Internet and mobile telephones.

In the days after Wednesday’s violent crackdown of Burmese monks and protesters and the muzzling of news by state-run media, ordinary citizens have been taking over in providing up-to-date information and journalists, the receivers.

Even though foreign correspondents not allowed in Burma, reports of how security forces shot at crowds, mauled monks and scenes of panic in Rangoon continue to inform international audiences – thanks to blogs, as well as photos and videos taken from mobile telephones and sent to news organisations or uploaded on the Internet.

In the Sep. 27 entry in his blog, 'Ko Htike's Prosaic Collection (http://ko-htike.blogspot.com/), Ko Htike wrote: "To all folk, it is really bad in Yangon. Please, can someone do something for our country.... Inside Yangon it looks like a war zone. I even heard shooting over the phone...They even used teargas in a primary school."

In another blog site, http://dathana.blogspot.com, the blogger who directly participated in the series of Buddhist clergy-led protests asked the United Nations to step in. “We, the people of Burma, need direct actions from the U.N. A possibility could be deploying UN peace-keeping troops and help establish [an] interim government,” it pleaded.

Such reports are also coming in a situation where the local media have been controlled for decades, and where new restrictions were issued recently. On Sep. 23, the Burmese press was ordered by the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division to publish or air announcements stating that they are not supporting the anti-junta protests.

Thus, people are taking matters into their own hands.

"The media are the only defence the people have in this kind of situation and it is clear that there is a synergy going on between traditional media and citizen journalists. This sense of collaboration is apparent in the information and images that are being transmitted to the media worldwide," said Premesh Chandran, founder of the independent Malaysiakini.com news site.

Since the crackdown began, we've been getting information through emails and images every half hour,” Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN) director Khuensai Jaiyen said in an interview, “This is so different from the events in 1988 when information was hard to come by. We didn't have sophisticated tools like the Internet to help us then."

"It's amazing to watch the quality of the materials coming out of Burma,” added Aung Zaw, the editor-in-chief of the Chiang Mai-based ‘Irrawaddy’ magazine (www.irrawaddy.org).

“These images tell the whole story and highlight the nature of the Burmese military junta, their brutality and their intentions," said the former student activist, who had also joined the 1988 uprising.

Foreign journalists are also relying on blogs set up by young Burmese living abroad, such as Ko Htike's blog 'Ko Htike's Prosaic Collection (http://ko-htike.blogspot.com/), as well as soneseayar.blogspot.com, http://niknayman.blogspot.com/, where dramatic images of the situation are uploaded as they come in.

Other Burmese uploaded videos of the monk-led demonstrations on You Tube. A cursory check of the site reveals over a hundred videos related to the ongoing protests, with one video, posted by a CSPANJUNKIEdotORG, getting as many as 21,000 hits.

International news channels such as the BBC and CNN have been flooded with emails and images from within Burma.

Time Magazine ran an exclusive story about a first-hand eyewitness account of the crackdown in its Sep. 26 online issue. "With foreign journalists locked out of the country by Burma's military government, this dispatch was written by TIME staff based on eyewitness reports," it said.

The article described an 80-year-old monk bleeding from a baton gash on his head, people throwing down water bottles from their shop balconies in aid of protesters, burning cars and motorcycles on the road, enraged younger monks carrying clubs and one toting a riot shield snatched from a policeman.

According to the New Delhi-based exiled Burmese news group Mizzima News, these popular blogs and sites have been blocked by the Burmese junta as of Sep. 26.

Internet-savvy users in Burma are reported to have turned to proxy sites and other creative means to be able to get access to the banned sites.

Internet access in Burma, says OpenNet Initiative, accounts for only .56 percent of the population, with two Internet providers under state control.

Support for the anti-government demonstrations is being sought through different ways, including through a signature campaign online, www.avaaz.org, put up by a global advocacy group, Res Publica, and MoveOn.org, an online community of Internet activists in the United States.

As of last count, the campaign has gathered more than 160,000, a big jump from the less than 50,000 a couple of days ago.

The Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma says it is getting much-needed information from their underground journalists in Burma.

"Right now, we are getting information from three online sites set up by citizen journalists. As a rule, we make sure to confirm everything from other sources, including news agencies both within and outside Burma," Jaiyen of SHAN news agency explained.

"The timeliness of the flow of information is getting close to real time. In our case at Malaysiakini, we've been getting new stuff about the unrest every hour. Now whether we can translate this into an actual outcome is a different matter," said Chandran.

The outcome of the protests and whether resistance from inside Burma will survive the military crackdown remains unclear for now.

But "the effect of citizen journalism to the traditional forms of media will definitely have a long-term effect, perhaps giving way to a closer interaction in the future," said Jaiyen. (Lynette Lee Corporal/IPS Asia-Pacific)

SRI LANKA: "Deadly" Climate for Reporters and Aid Workers

UNITED NATIONS - Sri Lanka, which is fighting a longstanding insurgency against Tamil separatists, is fast gaining notoriety as "one of the world's worst places" both for journalists and humanitarian aid workers -- due primarily to a rising death toll and veiled threats from government and paramilitary forces in the country.

At least four international non-governmental organisations monitoring the media -- the Committee to Protect Journalists, the International Press Institute, Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) and the International Federation of Journalists -- have singled out Sri Lanka as "deadly" for journalists.

"Journalists have been victims of murders, threats, kidnappings and censorship," said RSF in a report released last week.

An RSF fact-finding team specifically zeroed in on "the isolated, Tamil-populated Jaffna peninsula" where there have been "grave press freedom violations".

In 2006, described as "the most savage year for journalists and news media workers", the most dangerous place was Iraq where 46 newsmen were killed, followed by the Philippines (10), Mexico (seven), Sri Lanka (five) and Pakistan (four).

Last week, the consulting editor at the Sri Lanka Sunday Times, Iqbal Athas, was threatened and harassed for a series of articles he wrote detailing a corruption-ridden multi-million-dollar government deal involving the purchase of fighter planes from Ukraine.

Recounting the latest incident, Athas told IPS that a person purporting to be a retired Air Force officer walked into the Wijeya Newspapers Ltd., the publishers of the Sunday Times and several other publications in the native language Sinhala, and threatened the staff.

The visitor met the English-to-Sinhala translator, W.D. Gunaratne, and warned him not to translate any of Athas's articles into the local language newspaper (which has a larger readership than English language newspapers in Sri Lanka).

"He warned Gunaratne he would have to face the consequences if that happened," said Athas, who is also a military correspondent for the London-based Jane's Defence Weekly.

The visitor also warned that if Athas "does not give up his job and leave Sri Lanka within three months", he would meet the same fate that befell Tamil journalists, most of whom were killed by "unknown gunmen".

The Committee to Protect Journalists' Abi Wright told IPS that her organisation "is alarmed by the grave threats facing veteran journalist Iqbal Athas, who has come under extraordinary pressures following his investigations into irregularities surrounding a 2006 deal to purchase MiG-27 fighter jets from Ukraine".

She said Athas has already told CPJ that over the past two weeks-- when his security detail was abruptly withdrawn by the government after the publication of his articles about the deal-- he has been harassed and followed by unknown persons. She said Athas fears for his life and for the safety of his family.

"CPJ calls on the Sri Lankan government to act immediately to provide adequate security and ensure the safety of Iqbal Athas," Wright added.

She said that Athas is well-known as the defence columnist for the Sunday Times of Sri Lanka and a frequent contributor to international media outlets, including Cable News Network, Jane's Defence Weekly and the Times of London. He also received CPJs International Press Freedom Award in 1994.

Wright said CPJ will be sending a letter of protest to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse later this week.

The Colombo-based Free Media Movement (FMM) has already expressed its "grave concern regarding the safety and security of senior English language journalist Mr. Iqbal Athas."

"As senior Defence columnist for the Sunday Times, in the past months, Mr. Athas has been responsible for a series of articles on the irregularities in procurement of MIG aircraft for the security forces, from a company based in Ukraine," FMM said in a statement released Monday.

Referring to the continued threats to Athas and his family, FMM said: "In a context in which there have been repeated attacks and harassment of journalists and media persons in Sri Lanka in the past months, the Free Media Movement is convinced that there is a very real basis for Mr. Athas fears regarding his security."

"We call on the president, as minister of defence, to take all steps necessary to provide Mr. Athas with adequate security immediately. Failure to do so will only provide yet another indication of the lack of concern on the part of the government for the safety and security of media personnel in Sri Lanka."

Meanwhile, after a recent visit to Sri Lanka, the U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs described the Indian Ocean island nation as "one of the most dangerous places" for aid workers, second only to Afghanistan.

Addressing a meeting of the Security Council in June, John Holmes said that in 2006, 24 aid workers were killed in Sri Lanka, including 17 from Action Contre Le Faim, "in a single horrifying act."

The perpetrators of these and similar attacks -- including the killing of two Red Cross workers in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon and the murder of a Caritas International aid worker in Darfur, Sudan -- "are yet to be brought to account," Holmes said.

He said that civilians are too often deliberately targeted to create a climate of fear and to destabilise populations.

Holmes also pointed out that countries as far apart as Sri Lanka and Colombia were experiencing assassinations, disappearances and other violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law.

"In Sri Lanka, over 600,000 inhabitants of the Jaffna peninsula have faced shortages of basic necessities since August of last year when the government and the LTTE restricted access to the peninsula by road and by sea respectively," Holmes continued.

Implying Sri Lanka was virtually culpable of war crimes, he added: "Killing humanitarian staff and arbitrarily denying access violates international humanitarian law."

Ambassador John McNee of Canada placed Sri Lanka in the company of Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, northern Uganda, Lebanon and Somalia as countries that have failed to provide protection to civilians in war zones.

"Girls and boys are recruited as combatants; civilians become unwitting targets of suicide bombers; families are displaced from their homes; sexual violence is a deliberate weapon of war; and civilian infrastructure and economies are often shattered," McNee said.

The consequences of these actions play themselves out daily, he pointed out, in countries ranging from Sudan and Afghanistan to Somalia and Sri Lanka. (IPS/Thalif Deen)

UN Probes Extra-judicial Killings in Philippines By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Feb 12 (IPS) - A 10-day visit by a United Nations investigator to the Philippines, starting Monday, is being welcomed in some quarters as a chance to expose an alleged campaign to ''exterminate left-wing activists'' in that South-east Asian nation.

Days ahead of the visit by Philip Alston, U.N. special rapporteur on extra-judicial killings, another victim was added to a grisly death toll of over 800 people since 2001 when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo began her term in office.

Dalmacio Gandinao, provincial chairman of a left-wing farmers' movement, was gunned down on Thursday night in Salay, a town 750 km southeast of Manila.

He was having dinner at home with his wife and grandchildren when the assassins struck before getting away in a van.‘'We want the U.N. official to look at the systematic pattern of killings,'' Harry Roque, professor of international and constitutional law at the University of Philippines, told IPS over telephone from Manila.

‘'The U.N. human rights mechanism must be put into full use here to shame the Philippines.''The special rapporteur should also meet the countless people who have been threatened for their ‘'anti-capitalist'' views, added Roque, who has himself received six death threats for being part of the Philippines human rights community that is charging the Arroyo government with permitting a climate of impunity.

Concern that such violence may intensify is also growing, as the country heads for general elections in May for the 250-member House of Representatives, half of the 24-member Senate and hundreds of officials to fill the posts of mayors and governors.

In late January, a mayor of a town in central Philippines was killed by a gunman and in December a congressman was shot dead while standing at the entrance of a church in Manila.‘'The climate of impunity will not go away with the elections approaching,'' Red Constantino, managing director of the Foundation for Nationalist Studies, a Manila-based think tank, said in an IPS interview.

‘'I wouldn't be surprised if these killings increase because of the climate of impunity.''Human rights groups are hoping, however, that the killing of politicians will not pre-occupy Alston's agenda, since such political murders, they say, are different from the violent campaign being directed at individuals challenging the agenda of the government or of some multi-national companies.

Victims over the past six years have included trade unionists, farmers' rights activists, people from indigenous communities, lawyers, journalists, human rights campaigners and men of religion.

In October last year Bishop Alberto Ramento, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Bishops of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente and a vocal critic of the Arroyo administration was murdered in his house in Tarlac.

The findings of the Australia-born Alston are expected to add to the damaging conclusions arrived at in January by a special commission appointed by Arroyo to investigate into the murder of the left-wing activists. A small group of soldiers was behind the death of the activists, said Jose Melo, a retired Supreme Court judge, who headed the commission.

The complete report, which is yet to be made public, does not fault the entire Philippines army for the violations, a charge that had dogged it as the murder of left-wing activists piled up. According to ‘Karapatan', a human rights group with which Ramento was closely associated, over 360 of the more than 800 people killed were left-wing activists.

Arroyo's decision to appoint the commission came after Manila faced pressure from international groups to investigate the murders. The global rights lobby Amnesty International is among them, accusing sections of the Philippines army last year for being involved in this bloody campaign.

In November, even multi-national companies in the Philippines joined ranks with those concerned about the escalation in extra-judicial killings. In January, the European Union urged Manila to take strong measures against the murders that are bad for the ‘'reputation of this country.''

Manila has also been criticized by environmentalists who have produced reports recently revealing that a number of people from indigenous communities in the northern Cordillera mountain ranges were among those killed for protesting against plans to expand the mining industry in their midst.

Alston is due to visit indigenous communities in some of the mountainous area during his mission.‘'He should take time to listen to their testimonies, for they (indigenous people) have lost many through this violent campaign,'' Jo Villanueva, executive director of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Centre, an environmental lobby in Manila, told IPS.

‘'The victims were those who had been leading community resistance against encroachment by the mining companies.''The attacks on left-wing activists have lent an added dimension to the decades- long battle Manila's troops have been locked in with the New People's Army (NPA), the armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines.

December marked 38 years since the NPA launched a guerrilla war against the Philippines government, a conflict that has resulted in over 40,000 deaths, including civilians, soldiers and rebels. (IPS, repost)