Case Update Status

The journalists were released after five hours on July 11, 2023.

Summary of Case

"On July 11, Reporters from Peshawar were harassed and stopped after the coverage of “Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarian” in a local wedding hall in Peshawar by the security guards. Journalists who were detained for five hours included Arif Hayat from Dawn News, Zeeshan Kakakhail from 92 News, Faizan Hussain from Suno TV, and Sajjad Haider Samaa News. Dawn News correspondent Arif Hayat shared that some of his media colleagues and he went to cover the event that was happening in a local wedding hall on GT Road Peshawar, upon the sources when they reached the spot the security guards stopped them at the entrance and started misbehaving with the journalists. “They took us back side of the wedding hall and detained all of us for five hours without showing any warrant, they snatched our mobile phones and they interrogated us for doing coverage without our consent as the event was private and no media persons were not allowed according to them” Hayat added. “We were journalists and we do not need any permission to cover such political events, political parties have become biased specifically towards the media persons” Hayat added. “The event was related to the celebration of the newly launched political party by Pervez Khattak, and there was nothing special that can be confidential and cannot be shared, I don’t know why they made this a massive issue” he added. Dawn News Bureau Chief Ali Akbar said he cannot comment on this issue.Khyber Union of Journalists President Nasir Hussain told PPF that before the event the media coordinator have already informed the media organisation that they were not invited to cover the event however they would provide the press release and the relevant recordings to the organisations after the event but the media persons went to cover the live show of this political event and they were detained by the unidentified persons after detaining them for five hours the guards had released the journalists and in the office of Secretary Information KP, Mukhtar Ahmed they returned all the mobile phones to the journalists after verification and deleting the pictures of the events. ""They did not format any mobile phone however they have verified and after verification they returned the cell phones"" Hussain added. Speaking to PPF, Khyber Union of Journalists Vice President Abdul Basheer Qalandar shared that some of the journalists were stopped from the welcoming event of newly formed political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarian in Peshawar. Qalandar condemned the incident and said that security guards of the event stopped reporters from the coverage and detained them for hours. “They detained them because of their coverage, without showing any arrest warrant or prior notice they had detained the journalists” Qalanadar added. The moment Khyber union of Journalists knew about the incident President Nasir Hussain reached to the spot and requested the officials to release the journalists immediately as they went to cover the event, and after their release KHUJ had issued the condemning statement as well. “This has become a routine behavior of management of political parties that they always misbehaved with the media persons in Peshawar and stopped them from coverage of their events” He added. Qalandar additionally said that on August 3, a jirga was held by Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam (Fazal) another political party had arranged a jirga (assembly of leaders) in which they had not allowed any reporter t cover the event, they issued a statement that JUIF’s leader Molana Fazal Ur Rehman would speak to the media persons at the end of the jirga, but no correspondent would not be allowed to cover the jirga. “This is the biasedness which media professionals were facing particularly in Peshawar and which should be condemnable and needs to raise the issue on all journalistic platforms” Qalandar added. Peshawar Press Club General Secretary Irfan Moosazai condemned the detention of journalists and shared that the unidentified people arrested the journalists and detained them for five hours, they did not format any cell phone, however, they had deleted pictures and videos from the cell phones of the journalists. ""We have demanded from them to release the journalists or else Press Club and Union will protest against them, but they had relesaed the journalists after five hours"" Moosazai added. "

Category of Incident

Detained

ICCS Status

ICCS Divisions: 0202-Acts against liberty

ICCS Group: 02022-Deprivation of liberty

ICCS Class: N/A

ICCS Crime: Illegal restraints

Reported By

PPF's Media Safety fellow.

Date of incident

11

Month

July

Year

2023

Name of affected person

Arif Hayat

Other affected persons

Zeeshan Kakakhail

Name of affected organization

Dawn News

Other affected organizations

92 News

Action by

By the unidentified people wearing masks and palin clothes

City

Peshawar

Province

KP

Designation

Reporter

Professional category

Journalist

Age of victim

38

Marital Status

Compensation Details

Amount of compensation announced by government: No compensation announced

Date of compensation announcement by government: No compensation announced

Date of compensation paid by government: No compensation announced

Amount of compensation announced by others: No compensation announced

Date of compensation announced by others: No compensation announced

Date compensation paid by others: No compensation announced

FIR Details

Was FIR registered ?: No

Court Details

Was case investigated ?: Case was not presented in court.

Court where case was presented: Case was not presented in court.

Name of prosecuting lawyer: Case was not presented in court.

Date of first court hearing:

Date of last court hearing:

Status of court case: Case was not presented in court.

Journalist Union Status

PFUJ

"Speaking to PPF, Khyber Union of Journalists Vice President Abdul Basheer Qalandar shared that some of the journalists were stopped from the welcoming event of newly formed political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarian in Peshawar. Qalandar condemned the incident and said that security guards of the event stopped reporters from the coverage and detained them for hours. “They detained them because of their coverage, without showing any arrest warrant or prior notice they had detained the journalists” Qalanadar added."

APNS

N/A

CPNE

N/A

PBA

N/A

Media Source Status

Media reports:

Condemn Status

Colleague of victim

Not required to contact

Employer organization

Dawn News Bureau Chief Ali Akbar said he cannot comment on this issue.Khyber Union of Journalists President Nasir Hussain told PPF that before the event the media coordinator have already informed the media organisation that they were not invited to cover the event however they would provide the press release and the relevant recordings to the organisations after the event but the media persons went to cover the live show of this political event and they were detained by the unidentified persons after detaining them for five hours the guards had released the journalists and in the office of Secretary Information KP, Mukhtar Ahmed they returned all the mobile phones to the journalists after verification and deleting the pictures of the events.

Press Club Status

Press club 1: Not required to contact

Press club 2: N/A

Press club 3: N/A