New defamation law threatens press freedom

Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières) expressed alarm today at a new law that would send journalists to prison for "ridicule, unjust criticism, dislike, contempt or hatred and called for it to be urgently amended. "This is a serious threat hanging over the heads of independent and opposition journalists," said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard in a letter to information minister Nisar A. Memon.  "Every country needs laws that punish incitement to hatred and violence, but this one is so general that it will protect all kinds of abuses." "We are very disappointed that the government has ignored the comments of international and Pakistani journalists' organisations," he said.  "Coming a week before parliamentary elections, it is a new obstacle to balanced and impartial coverage of the final days of the campaign and the vote-counting." He called on the minister to see that the imprisonment clauses were eliminated from the law and to ensure that all political parties got a fair share of air time on the state-owned media. The new law, which came into force on 1 October under the country's military government, increases penalties for "defamation", with up to three months imprisonment, fines of 50,000 rupees (850 euro) and an obligation to publish an apology. The law punishes "publication or circulation of a false statement or representation made orally or in written or visual form which injures the reputation of a person."  People will have two months after publication to file a complaint before a district judge.  Defence rights will apply and verdicts can be appealed to the High Court. The controversial measure was enacted despite warnings from media owners and journalists.  Hameed Haroon, president of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society, said the authorities "clearly intend to finish the freedom of the press" through these "unacceptable laws." In June this year, Rauf Klasra, a journalist on the Islamabad paper The News, was put under police surveillance and harassed for revealing that the new law was being prepared.