Noted scribe's abduction from downtown Islamabad raises serious question on media freedom

NEW DELHI: Abduction of a senior and prominent journalist Matiullah Jan in broad day light on Tuesday from the heart of Islamabad has once again raised serious question mark on the declining press freedom in South Asia’s second biggest country.
Speaking to leading English daily The Dawn, Jan’s wife said that his car was found parked outside a school in Sector G-6 of Islamabad with one of his mobile phones inside the vehicle.
A tweet was posted on Matiullah Jan's account by his son read, "Matiullahjan, my father, has been abducted from the heart of the capital [Islamabad]. I demand he be found and the agencies behind it immediately be held responsible. God keep him safe."

Amnesty International South Asia called upon authorities to "establish [Jan's] whereabouts immediately".

Press advocacy organisation Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was "deeply concerned" about Jan's reported abduction. "He should be released and returned to his family at once," it tweeted.

Member of the National Assembly (MNA) representing PTM Mohsin Dawar "strongly condemned" Jan's disappearance and demanded his "safe recovery".

Matiullah Jan is a journalist, communication trainer and a media law expert who also manages a personal Youtube channel by the name of MJtv. He specialised on legal affairs writing.

In May, a media rights watchdog said in an annual report that press freedom in Pakistan appears to be on the wane due to attacks and intimidation by various actors.

The report, launched by the Freedom Network, titled 'Murders, harassment and assault: The tough wages of journalism in Pakistan', documents 91 assaults and other violations against journalists during the past 12 months. The long list of violations includes the killing of seven journalists, two abduction cases, nine detention cases, eight instances of frivolous lawsuits, 10 cases of censorship, 10 physical assaults, half of which caused severe bodily injuries, and more than 20 cases of written or verbal threats.

Data collected by the media rights watchdog shows that no place in the country, including the federal capital, is safe for media practitioners. Islamabad, the report said is the most dangerous place to practice journalism in Pakistan, with 31 out of the total 91 cases recorded in the federal capital. On the list of most dangerous places within the country, Sindh took the second spot with a total of 24 cases of violations against journalists, followed closely by Punjab with 20 cases, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 13, and Balochistan with three cases.