Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Pakistan's Official Media Condemns US Diplomats' Solidarity with Media - Instructions came from the top

PTV attacks US diplomats
By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir: November 22, 2007

ISLAMABAD: The government controlled TV has initiated a campaign against all those western diplomats posted in Pakistan who have been expressing solidarity with the journalists and criticising other government restrictions.

A PTV anchor on Wednesday evening devoted his show to castigate the US diplomats for criticising the crackdown on the media, imposition of emergency rule and suspension of Constitution and massive arrests of distinguished people from the civil society.

US ambassador Anne W Patterson was also targeted for her expression of solidarity with the journalists. She had visited the Geo TV offices the other day. The US counsel general in Karachi was also brought under severe criticism for her visit to the Karachi Press Club to sympathise with the journalists, who were brutalised by the police.

Former diplomats and commentators were invited in the show to attack diplomats in Pakistan for their 'indecent and undiplomatic' conduct. The diplomats who were targeted in the programme were not afforded the opportunity to explain their points of view.

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