His Excellency Gen. Pervez Musharraf
President
Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Islamabad
Pakistan

Fax: + 92-51-922-4206

Vienna, 12 March 2004

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in over 120 countries, is concerned about the use of advertising to pressure newspapers in Pakistan into curtailing their criticism of the government.

According to IPI’s sources, in February the government banned advertising in newspapers belonging to one of Pakistan’s leading media organisations, the Nawa-i-Waqt Group of Publications. As a result, neither the federal nor provincial government will advertise in the following national dailies: The Nation and Nawa-i-Waqt, the daily Ausaf (Islamabad), the daily Balochistan Express (Quetta), the daily Ummat (Karachi), the daily Jassarat (Karachi), the daily Azadi (Quetta), the daily Financial Post (Karachi), the Monthly Moon Digest, the Daily Intikhab (Karachi), the Intikhab (Hub), and the monthly Shahrag-e-Pakistan (Lahore), among others.

In the past, many of these newspapers have been critical of the government and IPI fears that the ban is being used to weaken the independent media in Pakistan. Moreover, IPI believes that freedom of expression and freedom of the press are of such importance that it must not be suppressed by direct or indirect measures, including the use of advertising as a means of leverage over the media.

While governments have a choice when allocating advertising it should not be guided by malice or favouritism. In the present case, IPI is worried that the decision to ban the Nawa-i-Waqt Group of Publications is designed to convey a clear message to the Pakistan media that criticism of the government can have dire financial consequences.

We therefore call on Your Excellency and the Pakistan government to do everything possible to ensure that this highly selective and unfair ban is lifted, to halt further attempts at influencing the media and their reporting, and to ensure that newspapers are allowed to publish in Pakistan without any further harassment or pressure.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director