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| India-Pakistan |
| 'President Musharraf lenient on jihadi media' |
| 2007-04-05 |
| While Pakistan’s secular television stations and newspapers face consistent harassment by the government, the radical jihadi press continues relatively unmolested, according to a report in The Christian Science Monitor. “Musharraf’s nurturing of Pakistan’s private media has spawned a virulently anti-Western and anti-government jihadi media,” writes David Montero in the Monitor report. “Under increasing political pressure at home and abroad, the Musharraf government is resorting to heavyhanded tactics in dealing with critics and the independent media” reads a recent statement from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. The proliferation of jihadi media puts the president in a difficult position: Either crack down on them and risk further alienating a dangerous segment of the population, or let them undermine his leadership with conspiracy theories and calls to arms that bolster terrorism, according to Montero. “Pakistan’s jihadi press, about two decades old, has largely escaped that heavy-handedness, even though it glorifies the bloody exploits of outlawed militants and expresses violent opposition to the government’s policies,” writes Montero. The report says few have seriously studied the jihadi media, but those who have say it frightens them. Since 9/11, they say they’ve watched the collective audience of jihadi media grow four times in size. Radical newspapers now compete with the leading English dailies in circulation, and the jihadi media arsenal includes pirated radio stations, DVDs, and Internet sites, says the report. “These publications should not be taken lightly,” says Mohammed Shehzad, editor of the Pakistan Media Monitor, a subscription-based service that translates the radical press into English. Last year, he and others point out, feuding religious leaders in the tribal areas stoked a violent war between their followers through illegal radio stations. Twenty-five tribesmen died and 15 were wounded. Even more disturbing, observers add, is that the government cannot - or will not - clamp down on the radical media. “The government is not sincere in stopping them,” says Shehzad. A poignant illustration, observers say, came with this month’s judicial crisis, which was triggered by the suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. Police ransacked the offices of Geo television, a leading private channel, after it broadcast images of the crisis. Musharraf later apologised for the incident, but incensed editorials about free speech have followed ever since. But a radio programme of Jamaatud Dawa, an alleged extremist group, blasted the government for Chaudhry’s sacking, connecting it to a recent decision to ban Al-Rashid and Al-Akhtar Trust, terrorist-linked welfare organisations, notes the report. “The jihadi outfits had decided to challenge the ban on Al Rashid and Al Akhtar Trusts. The chief justice would have heard our petition and decided in our favour.... The evil US could not have afforded this.... The Zionist entity is behind Justice Iftikhar’s removal,” said the group’s leader, Hafeez Saeed, according to a translation provided by the Pakistan Media Monitor. Even though Al-Rashid Trust has now been banned, its newspaper, The Daily Islam, continues to be published. “It shows that what [the administration] wants to ignore, they can ignore,” says Zafarullah Khan, director of the Centre for Civic Education, who has studied the radical press for many years. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Perv uses the Jihadis to keep in power as he knows the west fears/detests them!!!!! |
| Posted by: Ebbolump Glomotle9608 2007-04-05 06:24 |