Nisar Lehri, senior journalist in Mastung locality of Pakistan’s Balochistan. File
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

GUWAHATI

A global media safety and rights body has mourned the killing of the tenth journalist in Pakistan in 2024.

Armed assailants gunned down the 50-year-old Nisar Lehri, a senior journalist in Mastung locality of Pakistan’s Balochistan and a member of the local press club, on September 4 for reasons not officially disclosed. Nine others were killed before him in the country this year.

“Pakistan has slowly turned into a graveyard of working journalists in South Asia,” the Geneva-based Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) said in a statement on Wednesday.

Expressing serious concern over the continued killing of media persons in Pakistan even though the country is not witnessing any war currently, PEC president Blaise Lempen demanded a fair probe into Lehri’s untimely death.

“For any reason, the perpetrators should not enjoy immunity and they must be booked under the law of the land,” he said.

The PEC’s Guwahati-based South Asia representative, Nava Thakuria said Lehri’s killing followed that of Muhammad Bachal Ghunio of Mirpur Mathelo locality in the Sindh province, on August 27.

The eight other Pakistani journalists killed since January 1 were Malik Hassan Zaib, Khalil Afridi Jibran, Nasrullah Gadani, Kamran Dawar, Mehar Ashfaq Siyal, Maulana Mohammad Siddique Mengal, Jam Saghir Ahmad Lar, and Tahira Nosheen Rana.

Mr. Thakuria said Bangladesh has followed Pakistan in the killing of journalists since the movement against reservation in government jobs led to the ouster of Sheikh Hasina as the Prime Minister. Five Bangladeshi journalists killed during and after the movement were Tahir Zaman Priyo, Hasan Mehedi, Shakil Hossain, Abu Taher Md Turab, and Pradip Kumar Bhowmik.

Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker said in a letter to staff that the shift would also involve an unspecified number of layoffs. File picture
| Photo Credit: X/@emmatuckerWSJ

The Wall Street Journal(WSJ) will shift its Asia headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore, it said on May 2 in a letter sent to staff and seen by AFP.

The U.S. newspaper said its decision comes after other foreign firms have reconsidered their operations in Chinese financial hub Hong Kong.

WSJ editor-in-chief Emma Tucker said in a letter to staff that the shift would also involve an unspecified number of layoffs.

On the staff changes, she added: “Consequently, some of our colleagues, mostly in Hong Kong, will be leaving us. It is difficult to say goodbye, and I want to thank them for the contributions they have made to the Journal.”

The union for WSJ employees, IAPE, said in a statement that it was “sorry to learn that eight reporters from the Hong Kong and Singapore offices have been laid off from the company.”

Elsewhere in the region, the WSJ also has bureaus in Tokyo, New Delhi, Beijing, Seoul, Taiwan and Sydney.

Ms. Tucker said a new business, finance and economics group would be created with a mandate to “break news and write ambitious and distinctive features, analysis and enterprise.”

She also said the WSJ was looking to appoint an editor to lead the group, with the position based in Singapore, alongside a number of other journalist roles in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Ms. Tucker was named the first female editor of the New York-based newspaper in December 2022, starting in the role in February 2023.

Hong Kong authorities this year introduced a new national security law, with critics saying it expanded the city’s powers to prosecute dissidents, and that it was scaring foreign businesses away.

The new law expands on a national security law implemented by China in 2020 to quell the huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests that swept Hong Kong the year before.

More than 290 people have been arrested, 174 charged and 114 convicted — most of them prominent pro-democracy politicians, activists, and journalists — since Beijing’s security law was enacted.

U.S. news outlet Radio Free Asia announced in March it had closed its Hong Kong office, citing concerns about staff safety, while media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said in April a representative was denied entry into the city.

Hong Kong was once home to a thriving independent media environment.

Authorities have since closed several local media outlets, including Stand News and Apple Daily.

New Delhi:

A sessions court here has rejected an appeal by the Delhi Police challenging an order for the release of seized electronic devices of five editors of news portal The Wire in connection with an FIR, saying serious injury would be caused to the “foundations of democracy” if the press, its fourth pillar, is not allowed to function independently.

The city police had filed a revision petition assailing the September 23 order of the magisterial court asking them to release seized electronic devices to Siddharth Varadarajan, Siddharth Bhatia, Jahnavi Sen, MK Venu and Mithun Kidambi.

In October last year, police had lodged an FIR against the portal and its editors on a complaint by BJP leader Amit Malviya accusing the media outlet of “cheating and forgery” and “tarnishing” his reputation.

Additional Sessions Judge Pawan Singh Rajawat dismissed the revision petition filed by the city police, saying the impugned order of the magisterial court did not decide any right and only granted “the interim custody” of the devices till the conclusion of the investigation or disposal of the case.

“The press is considered the fourth pillar of our great democracy and if it is not allowed to function and operate independently, it would cause serious injury to the foundations of our democracy,” the sessions court said.

Dismissing the petition as “not maintainable,” the sessions court said the order passed by the magistrate was “purely interlocutory in nature” and no revision would lie against it.

“The investigating agency by continuous seizure of electronic devices of the respondents (portal and its editors), is not only causing undue hardship to them, but impinges upon their fundamental right of freedom of profession, occupation, trade or business as guaranteed under Article 19(1)(g) as well as freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution as admittedly the respondents are working for news portal — The Wire — which is engaged in disseminating news and information and the electronic devices were being used for their work,” it said.

It did not find any fault with the order of the magisterial court and said it not only safeguarded the interest of the journalists but also ensured that they keep the devices safe.

Rejecting the arguments of the Delhi Police, the judge said the release order was made after noting that the mirror imaging of the devices had been done and their custody was no longer required.

The city police’s crime branch had registered an FIR against Mr Varadarajan, Mr Bhatia, Ms Sen, Mr Venu and Mr Kidambi under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery with the purpose of cheating), 469 (forgery for harming reputation), 471 (using forged document), 500 (defamation), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) along with the provisions of the Information Technology Act.

The stories were retracted by the news portal.

Mr Malviya had said The Wire’s reports alleged that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, regularly colluded with members of the BJP in removing content deemed unfavourable to the party.

Even after Meta issued a categorical denial and said the documents shown by the portal were “fabricated” and that the ‘Xcheck’ status, the privilege reportedly bestowed on him, had been mischaracterised, The Wire instead of pausing its coverage and doing an internal audit went on to publish yet another “malicious” report, he had said. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)