Pak 10th most unsafe country for journalists

New York, Mar 24: Journalists are no more safe in Pakistan as they are killed regularly, having no freedom to work and the 2009 Global Impunity Index of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) recent survey ranks Pakistan 10th among 14 countries.

Other countries in the region - India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh - also figure on the index, a list of countries where journalists are killed regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes.

The already 'murderous conditions' for the Press in Sri Lanka and Pakistan deteriorated further in the past year, the CPJ said.

"We're distressed to see justice worsen in places such as Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Our findings indicate that the failure to solve journalist murders perpetuates further violence against the Press," Joel Simon, CPJ Executive Director, said in a statement.

"Countries can get off this list of shame only by committing themselves to seeking justice," The Nation quoted Simon, as saying.

On Pakistan, CPJ said: "In a deteriorating security situation, journalists have come under threat from a wide range of militant religious and criminal organisations, some with links to Pakistani intelligence."

Three unsolved murders were reported in 2008, bringing the decade total to 10 and moving Pakistan up two places on the index. "Impunity Index Rating: 0.062 unsolved journalist murders per 1 million inhabitants".

CPJ's Impunity Index, compiled for the second year, calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of a country's population.

CPJ examined every nation in the world for the years 1999 through 2008. Cases are considered unsolved when no convictions have been obtained, The Nation reports.

Only those nations with five or more unsolved cases are included on this Index, a threshold reached by 14 countries this year. Iraq, Sierra Leone and Somalia top the Impunity Index.

ANI