26 journalist bodies demand terrorists stop bombing civilians

PESHAWAR: Twenty six journalist organisations from around the world on Monday called on the Taliban, al Qaeda and other jihadi organisations in Pakistan to stop targeting civilians with their attacks, wherein journalists also lost their lives in the line of duty.
“We appeal with the utmost urgency to the leaders of the Taliban, jihadi movements and al Qaeda in Pakistan to put a stop to all further suicide bombings on public gatherings,” the appeal from the organisations that included the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and Reporters Without Borders said.
“As journalists, we have to cover official events first hand but that does not mean that we support this or that politician or public figure. By targeting large gatherings, the organisations are endangering the lives of innocent civilians and reporters. This is not acceptable. We can no longer accept the loss of lives of our fellow journalists,” the appeal said.
It comes more than a week after two TV journalists were killed in two days in suicide bombings in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Malik Arif, a Quetta-based TV cameraman and Azmat Ali Bangash, a Kohat-based reporter for the same TV network, were both covering stories at the time of the bombings.
“We, the undersigned journalists of Pakistan and defenders of press freedom around the world, condemn with the utmost firmness all recourse to suicide bombings in the middle of crowds of civilians that result in the deaths of innocent people, including media workers,” the appeal added.

From Pakistan’s Daily Times (a site that thwarts my attempts at linking)

Here’s the list of organizations:

“We, the undersigned journalists of Pakistan and defenders of press freedom around the world, condemn with the utmost firmness all recourse to suicide bombings in the middle of crowds of civilians that result in the deaths of innocent people, including media workers,” the appeal added.
According to the Paris-based press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders, suicide bombings have made Pakistan one of the “world’s most dangerous countries for the press”. The following organisations signed the appeal – Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, Associação Brasileira de Jornalismo Investigativo, Association of Caribbean Media Workers, Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, Cartoonists Rights Network International, Centre for Media Studies and Peace Building (Liberia), Comité por la Libre Expresión (Honduras), Ethiopian Free press Journalists’ Association (Ethiopia), Exiled Journalists Network, Independent Journalism Centre (Moldova), Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (Azerbaijan), Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information (Indonesia), Institute of Mass Information (Ukraine), Journaliste en danger (RD Congo), Media Foundation for West Africa (Ghana), Media Rights Agenda (Nigeria), Media Watch (Bangladesh), National Union of Somali Journalists (Somalia), Observatoire pour la liberté de presse, d’édition et de création (Tunisia), Pacific Freedom Forum, Pacific Islands News Association, Palestinian Centre for Development and Media Freedoms (Palestinian occupied territory), Southeast Asian Press Alliance, World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters and World Press Freedom Committee.

A Report of the IFJ: "Pakistan: Tackling Conflict"

Pakistan’s journalists and media remained under great stress during 2009. Threats and the dangers of working in conflict zones were especially manifest in insurgency hit areas such as the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, and parts of Balochistan, where military operations were undertaken during 2009 to flush out insurgents. Conflict in the Swat Valley in mid-2009 saw a massive displacement of civilians, including a number of media personnel to safer areas, while the Peshawar Press Club was targeted by a suicide bomber late in 2009. Both the military and the insurgent outfits are known to have used numerous stratagems to coerce the media into reporting only those aspects of the conflict that suit their convenience.

“Stop this biased reporting or get ready for serious repercussions” — this was the threat given to a local journalist working for an international radio in Balochistan. The threat came after the journalist reported that Baloch separatist groups had banned the raising of the Pakistan national flag and the singing of the national anthem in government schools in the province. Journalists and media workers in Balochistan – Pakistan’s largest province by area – commonly face such threats.

Because sometimes killing journalists randomly just isn’t enough.