ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Jang Group, publisher of Urdu and English newspapers and which runs the popular Geo News channel, on Tuesday distanced itself from a speech delivered by its top anchor Hamid Mir last week in which he warned the military establishment against attacks on journalists.
On Monday, Geo management confirmed that Mir would be off air “indefinitely” and not host his popular talk show, Capital Talk.
The suspension of Mir from Pakistan’s top news show comes just days after journalist Asad Ali Toor, a producer at a local TV channel, was attacked at his home, prompting Mir and others to deliver speeches in solidarity at a Friday protest.
Mir’s speech had various veiled references to the senior leadership of the Pakistan army and its top spy agency, the ISI.
“It becomes difficult for the Group and its editors to take ownership of the content that is delivered outside the purview, input and guidance of its editors, and which are not fact checked and approved by the editorial teams,” Jang Group said in a statement, referring to Mir’s speech which it said had “resulted in a backlash from different segments of society.”
“The anger, disappointment and frustration that Hamid Mir and other journalists feel on fellow colleagues being attacked is a shared and grave concern but better ways and means exist on how to channel that energy for productive gains for the safety of journalism and journalists,” the statement added.
Jang Group’s editorial committee and lawyers would check Mir’s speech for violation of policy and law, the statement said, and his show would, in the meantime, be conducted by a temporary host.
“We would like to remind our viewers and readers that Geo and Jang Group were shut down, our journalists were beaten up as they faced hundreds of fake allegations of corruption, blasphemy and traitorhood, shot at, financially strangulated more than any other media organization in the country,” the statement added. “The organization has lost more than Rs10 billion to keep viewers and readers informed.”
Pakistan’s military establishment and government have not yet commented on Mir’s suspension or his Friday speech. In the past, they have vehemently denied that they censor the media or harass journalists.
Mir survived an April 2014 assassination attempt by unidentified gunman that Mir and his family blamed on the ISI, an accusation which was broadcast by Geo News, leading to the channel’s broadcasting license being temporarily suspended by regulatory authorities. The military and the ISI have rejected the allegations they were behind the attempt to kill Mir.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) estimates that between 1992 and 2019, at least 61 journalists were killed in Pakistan. Last year, it ranked Pakistan number nine on its annual Global Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where journalists are slain, and their killers go free. Nine of the 65 journalists and media workers killed worldwide while on duty in 2020 were in Pakistan, according to the International Federation of Journalists.
Last month, journalist and a former chairman of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, Absar Alam, was shot and wounded while he was walking in a park near his residence in Islamabad. Last July, journalist Matiullah Jan was abducted from outside a government school in Islamabad. He was released after 12 hours. Perpetrators have not been arrested in either case.