On 3rd May World Press Freedom day marked worldwide. It is a reality that even after the developments in the field of media, journalism today entails many threats to life particularly in the conflict zones.
There are many regions in the world with wars, conflicts and rebellion uprisings are taking place. With all that security of the media persons has been compromised. These places are violent and power vacuums filled by non-state actors, which means more threats for the journalists. Journalists are actively targeted and made examples of; the truth is so terrible that reporters are being killed in the line of duty. Take, for example, the fact that Islamic State (IS) militants slit the throats of five Libyan reporters just one week ago or that they killed US journalist in September last year in a brutal execution video.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported that 27 journalists were killed in 2015 alone. Even bloggers are not safe: in Bangladesh two secular bloggers were hacked to pieces on the streets this year for voicing their opinions.
Situation if Pakistan regarding freedom of journalism is critical as country is recognised one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, ranking close to Syria and Iraq, with more than 100 journalists being killed in the last one decade alone, 40 of them from Balochistan. No safeguards are provided to our reporters. Many are intimidated into silence and terrorised into not speaking the truth. Many have left the country for suitable journalistic atmosphere to work in.
We are looking towards a gag ordinance in the shape of the Cyber Crime Bill too.
Most News channels are operating without proper code of ethics; Roze News is an exception which has developed a comprehensive code of ethics based on basic principles of journalism.