Nationality Pakistani | Name Munir Shakir | |
 | ||
Died 14 August 2011
Khuzdar, Pakistan Occupation TV correspondent and online journalist Notable credit(s) Correspondent, Sabzbaat | ||
Munir Ahmed Shakir (also spelled Muneer Shakir or Munir Shakar) (1967? – 14 August 2011) was an online journalist for the Online News Network and was also a TV correspondent for Sabzbaat, also known as Sabzbagh, a Baluch television station. He was an activist and was murdered in Khuzdar, Pakistan, where there is an ongoing conflict between Pakistan and the Baluchistan region of Pakistan. Four other journalists had died in Bolochistan in the last year as the violence there has escalated and journalists have been targeted while the perpetrators enjoy impunity. The killing of Balochi journalists, like Shakir, is one of the drivers behind Pakistan's high murder rate for journalists in 2010 and 2011.
Contents
Death
Munir Ahmed Shakir, 44, had been covering a general strike where people demonstrate in black and carry black flags, called "black day" that had been organised by a Baloch separatist group. He was shot later by two men riding motorcycles as he left the local press club in Khuzdar, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
The Baloch Armed Defense Army has threatened journalists who cover events that support Baloch separatism like the one Shakir reported.
Representatives of the Pakistan Press Foundation told have told the Committee to Protect Journalists that Shakir had been an activist with Baluch separatist organisations and have said that this was a reason why he may have been targeted.
Context
According to a BBC News report, some people in Balochistan say they have not enjoyed rights in Pakistan since the countries founding. "The Pakistani government doesn't do anything for us," a local fisherman told a reporter from BBC News, "They only work for themselves. We just labour hard, but nobody cares." Other say Pakistan are using Balochistan for their natural resources, especially natural gas, coal, and copper, while the local people remain poor. These were some of the reasons why the Baloch people were protesting the day Shakir was killed.
Impact
According to Reporters Without Borders, Munir Ahmed Shakir was the seventh journalist to be killed in Balochistan, but the organisation only reports journalist who have been independently confirmed to have been killed while reporting. He is the fourth journalist to die in Bolochistan since 2010. The Rurual Media Network has reported that he was the 13th journalist killed throughout all of Pakistan through the first 8 months of 2011. According to Irshad Mastoi, journalism in Baluchistan was becoming "an endangered profession" because nationalists have threatened reporters who cover government activities.
Reactions
Irina Bokova, the director-general of UNESCO, said: "I condemn the killing of Munir Shakar. It is essential that the perpetrators of this crime be brought to justice as soon as possible. Journalists must be provided with reasonable conditions of security if they are to exercise the basic human right of freedom of expression and provide people with the independent information they require to exercise their democratic rights responsibly."
Impunity in Pakistan makes it too easy to kill journalists and get away with it. Zohra Yusuf, chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said: "The sharp rise in killings and other forms of violence against journalists is linked directly to the fact that in almost all cases in the last few years, where journalists have been killed or attacked on account of their work, the culprits remain unidentified and unpunished."
Rupert Colville, a representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: "None of the cases [of journalists killed in 2010 and 2011] have been fully or satisfactorily investigated. In Baluchistan alone, there were disturbing reports that 25 people – this is a mix of journalists, writers, students and human rights defenders – have been extra-judicially killed within the first four months of 2011."