[The story of the struggling press in Balochistan is the story of Pakistan, as the Nation has struggled to replace its dictatorship press with a truly free independent people's press. The day will come when Pakistanis no longer have to choose between believing in press reports which have been doctored to conform to state pressure and those which have been factually reported, or insightful analysis which are shaped only by commitments to presenting the truth.
The people's press can lead the way to peaceful productive changes in Pakistan but only if the people can avoid being overcome by the power of the state to shut them down.]
Press in chain in Balochistan
(very fine pencil drawing, by the way)
By Abid Mir
In Balochistan, every thing is indeed in chains, so is the media. Based on facts and figures, Balochistan is the poorest part of Pakistan. Most Balochs are still illiterate. They do not even know about facilities like electricity and many other such basic necessities of life. Less than, 10% of the total population knows how a computer is operated. Thus, radio and newspapers end up as the last sources of information for the people of such an under-developed place.
Blochistan’s has a scattered population and the districts are located far from one another. Most of the newspapers of Balochistan are printed from the Baloch capital, Quetta, and then circulated to the other parts of the province. It is ironic that the newspaper of a particular day reaches the rest of the province either at the end of the day or the next day. Ironically, newspapers printed in other provinces, say Sindh, reach the markets in Balochistan much earlier in some areas where the local newspapers of Balochistan would stay by on their way to the market. Given the limited options, the people of Balochistan are compelled to read the alien newspapers. They are equally forced to read the views and opinions of the columnists of these non-local newspapers. This, understandably, favors the state officials as the national media is by and large believed to be subservient to the rulers of the country and opposed to the Baloch demands.
In the backdrop of this longstanding issue, some sons of soil in Balochistan with nationalistic inclination decided to publish their own newspapers on national lines. Thus, Daily Asaap was launched as a part of this decision in 2001. Asaap was the first Baloch national newspaper which was published from Quetta and Turbat simultaneously.
Originally, Asaap, is a combination of two words of Balochi language. As means fire and Aap means water. Joined as one, the fire and water become a parameter for testing any one’s character in the Baloch law. In other words, at Asaap, ““we promised to jump on fire and water to bring out the truth to our readers from our mother land”. This was Asaap’s motto, which was written and published on the editorial page of newspaper every day.
Due to Asaap’s open nationalistic approach, its staff members suffered from the first day of its publication. Remember that, according to lack of market and industry, Directorate of Public Relations, a department of the Government of Balochistan, is the only major source of income of newspapers in Balochistan which distributes official advertisements to the newspapers.
So, the government often uses these advertisements as a tool to blackmail those newspapers which are critical of its polices or present a dissenting point of view.Asaap started its publication during the gruesome martial law days of arvez Musharaf. Asaap turned out to become the biggest critic of the policies of the military dictator. Government officials tried to influence on policy matters but the management strongly resisted such pressure tactics. Consequently, the government banned the official advertisements of Asaap which it deserved due to its extensive readership and reach. The ban on the advertisements turned out to be the economical killing of the newspaper. Asaap’s management suffered for more than three years but continued its mission of fighting dictatorship. The military junta blocked Asaap’s website to. In spite of all these hardships, Asaap refused to broker any deal with the government in return of its national commitment.
In February 2009, the editor in-chief of Asaap Publications was ambushed in an attack in Quetta city. His right eye and right arm were fully damaged in this attack. Luckily, he survived the attack which was overtly meant to kill him. He was safely shifted to London for further treatment. During his absence, the state officials began to further troubling the newspaper staff by creating various hurdles for Asaap.
In the first week of August 2009, the Frontier Corps (F.C) established a camp in front of Asaap’s office. Two FC personnel sat at the main gate of the newspaper to investigate every visitor. Especially, they harassed Asaap’s staff members. During the siege of Asaap office, personnel of sensitive services visited the Asaap office and inquired about the complete profiles of the whole staff and even the details of account section.
Asaaps’s management approached the provincial government to inform its high officials about the threats they faced due to the bizarre attitude of the agencies’ officials. On their part, the government officials excused saying that they could not help us in this regard.
Later on, the Asaap management, believing that the armed forced deployed outside our office, could harm any of our staff members, decided to shut the newspaper for the greater safety of its staff members. On 18 August 2009, Asaap published its last edition with clarify the sad reasons that enticed us to shut the paper down for good.
Presently, Asaap is shut off but even till today the so-called media watch-dogs claiming to be fighting for the freedom of Press in the country, have not uttered a word of solidarity with the newspaper management simply because Asaap was a Baloch nationalist newspaper.
In short, the end of Asaap indicates the real face of state apparatus and the deplorable state of freedom of expression in Balochistan.
The writer is the ex-editor of Asaap Publication
Source: http://therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com/
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