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Journalism of Courage
Three reporters from Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper have been ordered to leave Pakistan for an editorial the paper ran that used an expletive in an allusion about President General Pervez Musharraf, an official said Saturday. The three — Isambard Wilkinson, Collin Freeman and Daniel Macelroy — were the first reporters ordered out of Pakistan since emergency was imposed. On Sunday, Musharraf demanded that Daily Telegraph apologise to him over the editorial. “Would you accept a word of that sort if I was to use it, if any one of my reporters were to use (it) against your president?” the angry General said.
Excerpts from the Daily Telegraph editorial:
Despite George W Bush’s rhetoric about freedom, the struggle against terrorism is provoking a reaction familiar from the Cold War and nowhere is that clearer than over Pakistan.
In the old parlance, General Pervez Musharraf is “our sonofabitch”. He has failed to stamp out extremist groups and close the madrassas that inspire them. He has allowed the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan to fall into the hands of assorted jihadis. And he has sacked independent-minded judges for fear that the Supreme Court declare illegal his re-election as president last month.
Yet, despite this combination of incompetence and brutality, America and Britain continue to back him as head of what has a strong claim to be the most dangerous country in the world.
… In short, the relationship between Gen Musharraf and the West is bankrupt. Valued as an ally after 9/11, he is now part of the problem. Under his dictatorship, Pakistan has become an increasingly ungovernable country in which moderate, secular forces have been sidelined to the advantage of the Islamists.
An alternative — an alliance between General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani, the army chief designate, and Miss Bhutto’s secular rival, Nawaz Sharif — seems neither imminent nor especially enticing.
But that should not blind Britain and America to the fact that their “sonofabitch” in Pakistan is a spent force.
The reporters as well as the Daily Telegraph office in London declined comments on the incident.
