Tag: freedom of expression

  • ‘Judge who is affected by criticism on social media violates his oath’: Justice Athar Minallah

    ‘Judge who is affected by criticism on social media violates his oath’: Justice Athar Minallah

    Supreme Court Justice Athar Minallah, addressed a seminar on the significance of freedom of expression on Saturday, shedding light on its historical context and impact on Pakistan’s trajectory.

    The seminar, a part of the second law bridge workshop on superior court reporting, provided a platform for Justice Minallah to share his insights on the intersection of freedom of expression and judicial independence.

    Expressing his concern over the potential influence of social media on judicial decision-making, Justice Minallah asserted the importance of maintaining judicial independence, stating that any judge swayed by social media violates his/her oath and called upon fellow jurists to remain resolute in upholding justice despite external pressures.

    Addressing the delicate balance between constructive criticism and trust in the judiciary, Justice Minallah emphasized that critics should retain faith in the legal system, considering it a litmus test for its strength.

    He welcomed constructive criticism while underscoring the need to strike a balance in fostering trust in the judiciary.

    Reflecting on the challenges of freedom of speech in the country, the Chief Justice traced the roots of censorship to historical actions following Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s speech on August 11, 1947. He stressed the necessity of balancing freedom of expression with responsible reporting to navigate these challenges.

    Sharing a personal anecdote from his early days as a judge, Justice Minallah recounted a case involving a 16-year-old accused of displaying a banner against a senior apex court judge.

    He highlighted the importance of judiciously addressing such incidents and cautioned against making blanket judgments without thorough investigations.

    “When the matter of the 18th constitutional amendment was raised, many forces were against it. A reporter asked me, what will the Supreme Court do about the 18th Amendment. I replied ‘In my opinion, the SC should not interfere in the constitutional amendment’,” he said.

    The apex court judge said he had said he would resign if the 18th amendment was annulled and the next day news was published that “Athar Minallah has threatened the court”.

    Citing former Ugandan president and the modern world history’s most brutal dictator, Idi Amin, Justice Minallah said, “A society is ruined, if someone gags freedom of expression like Idi Amin.”

  • Denmark’s parliament passes law banning Quran burning

    Denmark’s parliament passes law banning Quran burning

    Denmark’s Parliament on Thursday passed a law widely known as the Quran Law, banning the “inappropriate treatment” of religious texts. Offenders now face a fine or up to two years in jail after a vote followed a five-hour debate in parliament and 94 members voted in favour, 77 against.

    During Thursday’s heated debate in Denmark’s 179-strong parliament, The Folketing, many opposition MPs argued against the bill but the country’s center-right coalition government of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen argued that criticising religion would remain legal, as the bill would only have a marginal impact.

    It follows a series of burnings of Islam’s holy book that led to uproar in Muslim countries.

    Denmark and neighbouring Sweden have recently seen several street protests over such incidents, raising security concerns in Scandinavia.

    Sweden is also considering a similar bill.

  • Protests, counter-protests escalate over Quran burning in Sweden and Iraq

    Protests, counter-protests escalate over Quran burning in Sweden and Iraq

    A group of protesters in Iraq set fire to the Swedish embassy in Baghdad after hearing about a planned burning of the Holy Quran in Stockholmon on Thursday.

    The Swedish authorities have approved a demonstration outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, where organisers plan to burn a copy of the Holy Quran and an Iraqi flag.

    Last week, an Iraqi Christian immigrant burned the Holy Quran outside a mosque in Stockholm on the occasion of the Muslim holiday of Eid ul-Azha.

    The incident has caused widespread condemnation in the Islamic world.

    This, along with other recent protests by a far-right activist, has sparked a debate in Sweden about the limits of freedom of speech. Swedish police have now received new requests for demonstrations by individuals who want to burn the Quran, Torah, and Bible. The Islamic world has urged Sweden to enact bans and introduce blasphemy laws.

  • No Chinese journalist left in India after last one expelled

    No Chinese journalist left in India after last one expelled

    Freedom of expression in India is shrinking as the last remaining Chinese reporter has been expelled from New Delhi. The visa extension of the last Chinese reporter, who was associated with the Chinese official News agency Xinhua, was denied by Indian authorities last month.

    The expulsion marks the first instance in history that not a single Chinese journalist is present in India since 1980.

    Critics say that the action reflects that there is no space for journalists in Modi’s government.

    Indian authorities have been accused of taking such steps to hide cruelty against minorities like Muslims, Kashmiris and Dalits.

  • ‘Seems like PM Khan was not assisted correctly over PECA Ordinance’: Justice Minallah

    During the hearing of a plea challenging the Prevention of Electronic Crimes (Amendment) PECA Ordinance, 2022, Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Athar Minallah reportedly issued a notice to the attorney-general of Pakistan and directed him to combine this petition with other petitions that are against PECA.

    Justice Minallah said that it seems like no one told the premier that there are laws for contempt other than PECA. He was referring to Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s address yesterday. “It seems like PM Khan was not assisted correctly over PECA Ordinance,” said Justice Minallah, adding that the law is used against critics here.

    The plea was filed by former president of Lahore High Court (LHC) Bar Maqsood Buttar. In the petition, it was argued that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) doesn’t have the authority to deal with a matter between two private parties.

    Previously, the IHC chief called the amendment “draconian in nature”. He said it is even worse than the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law.

    Last month, President Arif Alvi passed an Ordinance amending PECA 2016, an attempt to make online “defamation” of authorities, including the military and judiciary, a criminal offence with harsh penalties.

    The high court adjourned the hearing till March 10.

  • Twitter receives record number of govt requests to remove content, including India’s

    Twitter receives record number of govt requests to remove content, including India’s

    Twitter has revealed that a record number of requests have been made from several governments around the world to remove content from the social media platform between January and June 2021.

    According to the platform, 95 per cent of the demands came from five countries which include Japan, Russia, Turkey, India and South Korea.

    The company said that in July 2021, it had seen a surge in government demands to take down content posted by journalists and news outlets.

    In a report, they said that 43,387 legal demands for the removal of content from 196,878 accounts were made in the six months. It is the largest number of such requests in a reporting period since Twitter started releasing its transparency reports in 2012.

    Sinead McSweeney, Twitter’s vice president of global public policy and philanthropy, said, “We’re facing unprecedented challenges as governments around the world increasingly attempt to intervene and remove content. This threat to privacy and freedom of expression is a deeply worrying trend that requires our full attention.”

    Previously, Twitter faced high-profile tussles with governments from India to Nigeria over content moderation and regulation.

  • 293 journalists jailed, 24 killed in 2021: CPJ report

    Record number of journalists were jailed around the world in 2021 with China remaining the world’s worst jailer of journalists for the third year in a row with 50 journalists behind the bars, states a report by Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

    Apart from China, 26 journalists are behind bars in Burma, 25 in Egypt, 23 in Vietnam and 19 in Belarus.

    Adding those jailed in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Russia, Ethiopia and Eritrea, the CPJ said a total of 293 journalists were in prison worldwide as of December 1.

    Forty of the 293 detained journalists – less than 14 per cent – are women.

    Executive director of the group Joel Simon said, “This is the sixth year in a row that CPJ has documented record numbers of journalists imprisoned around the world. It’s distressing to see many countries on the list year after year, but it is especially horrifying that Myanmar and Ethiopia have so brutally slammed the door on press freedom.”

    According to the report, 24 journalists are believed to be killed around the world this year. India has the highest number of journalists – four – confirmed to have been murdered in retaliation for their work. A fifth was killed while covering a protest. While, in the west, Mexico is at the top as three journalists were murdered for their reporting and the motives for six other killings are under investigation.

    The CPJ said the number of journalists behind bars reflects “increasing intolerance for independent reporting around the world”.

    Last month, Freedom Network reported that two dozen journalists in Pakistan had been prosecuted (2019-21) over the past under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca).

  • German gymnasts wear full-body suits at Olympics to promote freedom of choice

    German gymnasts wear full-body suits at Olympics to promote freedom of choice

    The German women’s gymnastics team wore full-body suits in qualifications at the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday instead of their traditional bikini cut version to encourage all women to wear what makes them feel comfortable and to promote freedom of choice, reports Reuters.

    According to the German Gymnastics Federation, this act is against sexualisation in gymnastics. The aim is to present aesthetically- without feeling uncomfortable, they added in a tweet.

    The International Gymnastics Federation said that attire with full or half sleeves and leg coverings are allowed in the competition, as long as the colour matches the leotard (one-piece garment with no legs).

    Sarah Voss, one team member, first wore the suit while competing for the European championships in April.

    “We want to make sure everyone feels comfortable and we show everyone that they can wear whatever they want and look amazing, feel amazing, whether it is in a long leotard or a short one,” she said.

    After this, the entire team decided to participate in the multi-international sports event in red and white unitards and leggings extending to the ankles, in contrast to the costume worn by many other female gymnasts.

    Moreover, their mutual decision earned them praise from fellow competitors in Tokyo.

    Until now women and girls have only covered their legs in international competitions for religious reasons.

  • EXCLUSIVE: ‘I did the speech knowing I would lose my job,’ Hamid Mir

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘I did the speech knowing I would lose my job,’ Hamid Mir

    Hamid Mir doesn’t sound like he’s down. On the contrary, the seasoned journalist sounds energised and alive. His phone was dead (or switched off) for the past two days, when The Current tried to reach out to him. Eventually when we got through, he didn’t pause for a second and gave us his version of the event that led to his removal from his flagship show, ‘Capital Talk’ on Geo News.

    “What will Geo probe?” he said when asked that Geo News had stated that they would “check for violation of policy and law” in a speech given by Hamid Mir “that resulted in backlash from different segments of society”.

    “My speech did not air on Geo News, it was not published in the newspaper,” Mir said categorically, “so how is Geo responsible when it never appeared on their television screens?”

    But Mir does admit that the pressure is intense on the management of his channel, which ultimately falls on him. “I am always prepared for pressure,” he says calmly, “I offered to leave the channel on Friday night when I was asked to clarify my statement. I told the management that when I never spoke on your channel, why do I need to issue a clarification? I was then told not to tweet on the issue and also that I should not take part in any other programmes,” Mir explained. “I was going to go on different news channels and said that I am not going to discuss my speech but to discuss the media ordinance. I was asked not to do so and therefore, I didn’t. I did tell them [management] that ‘they’ will ask you to remove me from the programme in a day or so and that’s exactly what happened.”

    When asked what it was about this particular case that drove Mir to give the speech, he said it was because of a man in a wheelchair.

    “When I was about to speak, if you notice in the video, there is a man on my right side sitting on a wheelchair. The man is an old journalist Qaiser Butt and he randomly said, ‘Larki ka bhai ho sakta hai‘ (it can be the girl’s brother) implying that Toor was part of an illicit relationship. That made me angry since Asad was standing right there as well. I got de-tracked and said, ‘larki ki maa bhi ho sakti hai jo General Rani hai‘. But it’s not just that.”

    Mir says the biggest reason for speaking out had been building up for the past three weeks. “In the past two, three weeks, some female colleagues were complaining that they were being threatened and one told me that ‘they’ came to her house. They didn’t cause her any harm but gave her a message.” He added that two female journalists also wanted to file a case but they have restrictions that are different. “Their husbands tell them not to report the cases; they face problems with their in-laws.”

    Mir is hopeful for change this time. “I did the speech knowing I would lose my job and I was prepared for that,” he says. “Right now, as I am speaking with you, I am at a meeting with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). Hina Jilani is also here and the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) is going to be releasing a white paper on the new cases that have come up. I can’t tell you, I have been swamped with calls of people that are now finally coming forward with cases and want to raise their voice.”

    “Lots of people are taken off air, but there has never been such a big reaction,” Mir says, explaining that in this particular case, the local and international reaction is bigger than he expected. “I am getting a lot of calls from international networks wanting to cover the story and because of this interest, I believe that some pressure will be put on the political government for accountability.”

    “Lots of ministers are messaging me in private, lending their support,” Mir said. “Perhaps this time, we might see some actual change.”

    Hamid Mir was taken off air on Monday.

  • گولی لگے تاکہ باہر جائیں

    گولی لگے تاکہ باہر جائیں

    باہر جانے کا کس  کو شوق نہیں ،  گھر  سے باہر نہیں ملک سے باہر جانے کا ۔ ہم میں سے بیشتر لوگ باہر سیر و تفریح کرنے جاتے ہیں تا کہ زندگی کے تھکا دینے والے سلسلے سے کچھ دیر تو چھٹکارا ملے ۔ کچھ لوگ باہر جا کے صرف لوگوں کو بتانا چاہتے ہیں کہ وہ برج خلیفہ کی سوئی کو ہاتھ لگا کر آئے ہیں  اور مونا لیزا کی تصویر میں کوئی خاص بات نہیں  ، اس سے بہتر تصویر ہم خود بنا لیں ۔ اور کچھ لوگوں کی ویسے ہی بس ہو گئی ہے ملک میں تو وہ اپنی زندگی کا سب کچھ بیچ کر  ملک ہمیشہ کے لیے چھوڑ جاتے ہیں ، یہ سوچتے ہوئے کہ اس  ملک میں ملی ہوئی عزت سے بہتر باہر کی بے عزتی ہے  ، افسوس تو نہیں ہوتا نہ کہ اپنے بے عزتی کر رہے ہیں !

    دوسرے ملکوں میں بات یہیں ختم ہوجاتی ہے کہ باہر گئے اور واپس آ گئے ۔ لیکن پاکستان میں باہر جانے کو ایک خاص ہی مقام حاصل ہے ۔ ملک سے باہر جانے کو سیاسی نظر سے دیکھیں تو شاعر حضرات جو اپنی انقلابی شاعری کے لیے مشہور تھے ، انہیں بھی ملک چھوڑنا پڑا ۔ ایک ان سے ملک چھڑوایا اور پھر ان کو غدار کا سرٹیفکیٹ بھی دے دیا ۔اور جب وہ واپس نہیں آئے تو سب نے کہا ” تھا ہی غدار ، باہر صحیح عیاشی کرتا رہا ہے، اس کے تو مزے ہوگئے” جن سیاست دانوں سے سب کی نہ بنی ان کو بھی ڈیل میں باہر کا ملک دے دیا  کہ چلیں آپ اب تھوڑا آرام  کر لیں، ملک کا بیڑا غرق اب ہم کریں گے۔ ہمیں بھی تو موقع دیں نا۔  سیاسی طور پر اس دن حد ہی ہو گئی جب پاکستان کے ایک وزیرِ اعظم کو کہا گیا کہ لوگ تنگ آ کر ملک چھوڑ رہے ہیں ، تو انہوں نے جواب میں کہا ” ہاں تو چلے جائیں ، ان کو روک بھی کون رہا ہے ” خود بتائیں اس سے زیادہ خیال رکھنے واالی حکومت آپ کو کہیں اور مل سکتی ہے ؟  نہ آپ کو کوئی روک رہا ہے، نہ کوئی ٹوک رہا ہے، جہاں مرضی جائیں۔

    لیکن یہ باہر جانا کچھ عجیب شکل اختیار کر چکا ہے ۔ اب لوگ کہتے ہیں

     “اس نے اپنے آپ کو خود مار پڑوائی  تاکہ وہ ملک سے باہر جا سکے ” یہ الزام جن لوگوں پر لگ رہا ہے ان میں صحافی ، انسانی حقوق کے علمبردار،اور ظلم کے خلاف آواز اٹھانے والا ہر شخص شامل ہے ۔ وہ ظلم کے خلاف آواز اٹھاتے ہیں ، ظالم ان کی آواز بند کرتے ہیں۔ کبھی ان کو ذہنی اذیت  دے کر تو کبھی جسمانی ۔ کچھ سہہ جاتے ہیں اور کچھ کو واقعی ملک چھوڑنا پڑ جاتا ہے۔  جو ملک چھوڑ جاتے ہیں ، ان کے بارے میں کہا جاتا ہے “خود مار پڑوائی تھی اپنے آپ کو تاکہ گوروں سے ہمدردی حاصل کر کے ملک چھوڑ سکیں” ۔

     15 سال کی ملالہ کو  جب گولی لگی  اور انہیں باہر لے جایا گیا  تو پاکستان میں سوال  ہی کچھ اور تھے ۔ “ملالہ کو جہاں  گولی لگی وہاں سوراخ کیو ں نہیں ہے؟  سر میں گولی لگنے سے کون بچ سکتا ہے ؟ کہیں خود گولی  تو نہیں لگوائی؟ اور آخر میں پھر وہی بات کہی گئی “باہر جانے کا بہانہ تھا ، گولی لگی ہی نہیں”

    اب کوئی سچ بولنے والا صحافی ہو یا ظلم کے خلاف آواز اٹھانے والا انسان ، اس کو کوئی گھر میں گھس کر مارے ، یا گھر کے باہر سے اٹھا کر غائب کر دے ، اس کا اخبار بند کروا دے ، اس کے گھر والوں کو کوئی دھمکیاں دے جائے ، ہر چیز پر ہماری محب ِوطن قوم کا ایک ہی نعرہ ہوتا ہے “خود کروایا ہے تاکہ ملک سے باہر جا سکے ” ۔ بات صرف یہاں نہیں رکتی، کوئی صحافی زخمی ہو تو محبِ وطن لوگ پوچھتے ہیں  “یہ زیادہ زخمی کیوں نہیں ہے؟ ایسے کون زخمی ہوتا ہے ؟ خود کروایا ہوگا”  کسی کا خون زیادہ نہ نظر آئے تو تب بھی یہی کہا جاتا ہے “یہ کیسا تشدد ہے جس میں خون کا دریا نہیں بہا؟ لگتا  ہے خود کروایا ہے تاکہ ملک سے باہر جا سکے ” کسی صحافی کو کچھ گھنٹوں کے لیے غائب کرنے کے بعد جب واپس کیا جاتا ہے تو تب بھی یہی کہا جاتا ہے “خود اٹھوایا ہوگا ورنہ زندہ کیسے واپس چھوڑ گئے ؟ ضرور ملک سے باہر جانا ہے” ارے ہمارے محبِ وطن لوگ تو کسی عورت کی عصمت دری ہو اور اس کو باہر کے ملک میں  پناہ مل جائے تو اس کو بھی یہی کہتے ہیں” خود کروایا ہوگا اپنا ریپ تا کہ ملک چھوڑ سکے”

    پہلے ہم کہتے تھے جو کروا رہا ہے بھارت کروا رہا ہے ، اب ہم کہتے ہیں جو کروا رہے ہیں خود کروا رہے ہیں ۔ میرا سوال یہ ہے کہ آخر کتنے صحافی اس ملک سے باہر گئے ؟ میرا ان محبِ وطن لوگوں سے سوال ہے کہ جب کوئی صحافی یا ظلم کے خلاف آواز اٹھانے والا انسان مرے تو کیا تب ہی  آپ کو ان حادثوں پر یقین ہوگا ؟ کیا اس کی لاش کے ٹکڑے ملیں گے تو تب ہی آپ ظالم کے خلاف آواز اٹھائیں گے ؟  اے محبِ وطن انسان ! ملک سے محبت کے لیے کیا موت ضروری ہے ؟