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LAHORE: Censorship in Pakistan appears in many forms, but of them is the worst is: intimidating, threatening, torturing and even killing journalists.

Media analyst Adnan Rehmat said this at a seminar on Media Ethics in the Time of Threat on Thursday. The seminar was held by Rozans Secretariat of Pakistan Coalition for Ethical Journalism with the Digital Rights Foundation and the Human Right Commission of Pakistan.

Also read: Journalists murder

Mr Rehmat said censorship today had become much worse than ever when even cable operators who were not content producers could easily block out channels on their own.

He read out excerpts from his book Reporting Under Threat, where the compelling personal accounts of three journalists were highlighted. Later these journalists -- Shumaila Jafary (BBC), Rana Azeem (PFUJ), and Yousuf Ali (The News) spoke as part of a panel.

Mr Rehmat said telling stories was important as they helped us understand what the ground reality was. The job of journalists is to tell these stories but they faced several dangers in uncovering these stories.

A free media is intrinsic of an open society and a democracy, where people can freely communicate and air their opinions and issues, he said. Unfortunately, he said, journalists were threatened commonly by non-state actors and sometimes by the government too in different ways, and when in 2002 UNESCO recorded that 612 journalists were killed globally, of them 10 per cent belonged to Pakistan.

Only in 2014, over 100 journalists have been killed, and this is just the tip of the iceberg, he said.

But no one from the public knows about this much, nor do they know the inner professional lives of these journalists and how they work under threat, he said, explaining the purpose of his book.

He said the killing of journalists was a direct attack on the State and on democracy.

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The worst form of censorship is killing journalists - Pakistan - DAWN.COM

Performer wears Vladimir Putin mask in Halloween performance at Moscows Doc theatre. Photograph: Alexey Zhiryako

Russia has been discouraging public celebrations of Halloween as part of a campaign against western influence.

But that did not stop Teatr.Doc from staging a bitingly satirical Night of the Living Dead on Friday night in what may be one of the last ever productions at the tiny basement theatre in central Moscow famous for innovative and uncompromising work.

In a move that has shaken the international theatrical community, the Moscow authorities have ordered Teatr.Doc to vacate the basement on grounds that it had violated property regulations.

Many people think the eviction order masks an illegal attempt to censor one of Moscows few independent theatres and turn the premises into something and more profitable and predictable like a cocktail bar or billiard hall.

Problems began at Teatr.Doc, or Doc as its known among Moscow theatre buffs, when fire inspectors visited in April and ordered the theatre to replace a window with a door. What initially looked like a safety precaution turned out to be bureaucratic trap. Moscow City Property Department has ruled the new exit breaches structural rules and has terminated Teatr.Docs lease.

Were not state-owned and dont receive any government funding so the lease is the only weapon the authorities can use against us, said Mr Ugarov who co-founded Teatr.Doc with his wife and fellow playwright and director Elena Gremina in 2002.

News of Teatr.Docs eviction has sparked outrage. More than 6,200 people including Elyse Dodgson, international director at Londons Royal Court Theatre, and Hollywood actor Bill Pullman have signed a petition on change.org urging Moscows mayor to reverse the decision.

Russia has reverted to Soviet style censorship and petty vindictiveness to silence Teatr.Doc, British playwright Tom Stoppard wrote in an open letter published last week. With sorrow one cannot help noting that the battle for freedom of expression which has been won in the past has to be fought again by this tiny theatre.

Founded in the early years of Vladimir Putins rule, Teatr.Doc has made enemies with documentary work that explores the social and political fall out from Russias slide towards authoritarianism.

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Moscows fringe Doc theatre faces censorship with eviction

People gather around the wreckage of a car bomb in Homs last week. Isis fighters control up to a third of Syria as well as swaths of Iraq. Photograph: Sana/Reuters

Islamic State (Isis) fighters in Syria claim they have taken control of a gas field in the central province of Homs, the second it has seized in a week after battles with government forces.

The hardline Sunni Islamist group posted 18 photos on social media showing the Islamic State flag raised in the Jahar gas field as well as captured vehicles and weaponry, according to the Site jihadi website monitoring service.

Reuters could not independently confirm the events due to security restrictions.

Isis fighters, who control up to a third of Syria as well as swaths of Iraq and have declared a caliphate in the territories they control, seized the larger Shaar gas field on 30 October.

So after the (Shaar) company and the (positions) surrounding it became part of the land of the caliphate, the soldiers advanced, conquering new areas, and all praise is due to Allah, Islamic State said in the message.

Yesterday they tightened control over Jahar village and the Mahr gas pumping company, and nearly nine (positions) supported by heavy weaponry such as tanks, armoured vehicles, and heavy machine guns of various calibres, it added.

The report said Isis had captured two tanks, seven four-wheel drive cars and several heavy machine guns.

A US-led coalition has conducted air strikes against Islamic State since September. The US says it is not coordinating with forces of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, to combat the Islamist group.

Originally posted here:
Isis fighters capture second Syrian gas field in a week

WASHINGTON (AP) The U.S. government agreed to a police request to restrict more than 37 square miles of airspace surrounding Ferguson, Missouri, for 12 days in August for safety, but audio recordings show that local authorities privately acknowledged the purpose was to keep away news helicopters during violent street protests.

On Aug. 12, the morning after the Federal Aviation Administration imposed the first flight restriction, FAA air traffic managers struggled to redefine the flight ban to let commercial flights operate at nearby Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and police helicopters fly through the area but ban others.

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They finally admitted it really was to keep the media out, said one FAA manager about the St. Louis County Police in a series of recorded telephone conversations obtained by The Associated Press. But they were a little concerned of, obviously, anything else that could be going on.

At another point, a manager at the FAAs Kansas City center said police did not care if you ran commercial traffic through this TFR (temporary flight restriction) all day long. They didnt want media in there.

FAA procedures for defining a no-fly area did not have an option that would accommodate that.

There is really ... no option for a TFR that says, you know, OK, everybody but the media is OK,' he said. The managers then worked out wording they felt would keep news helicopters out of the controlled zone but not impede other air traffic.

The conversations contradict claims by the St. Louis County Police Department, which responded to demonstrations following the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, that the restriction was solely for safety and had nothing to do with preventing media from witnessing the violence or the police response.

Police said at the time, and again as recently as late Friday to the AP, that they requested the flight restriction in response to shots fired at a police helicopter.

But police officials confirmed there was no damage to their helicopter and were unable to provide an incident report on the shooting. On the tapes, an FAA manager described the helicopter shooting as unconfirmed rumors.

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AP Exclusive: Ferguson no-fly zone aimed at media

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