Press freedom

Omar Quraishi is no stranger to the climate of fear and violence that characterizes journalism in Pakistan. The DW contributor and editorial page editor of the Express Tribune, a leading English-language newspaper in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, has not only been the target of threats and intimidations. Earlier this year, he also lost three co-workers in a drive-by attack.

Still, when he received a death threat in his private email account last Friday, Quraishi was alarmed. "There was obviously a little bit of fear and concern," he told DW, "especially when you think that you are not going to get much help from the government in terms of trying to trace it."

Quraishi, an avid Twitter user, quickly regained his composure and only hours later tweeted to his 43,000 followers about the death threat.

"It's definitely good to publicize the threats because it can be an element of protection," Karin Karlekar, a Pakistan expert and director of the Press Freedom Index at Freedom House, a Washington-based watchdog group, told DW. "Many journalists have been doing that and that's a good strategy."

Dangerous terrain

That Quraishi and several other well-known journalists were targeted last week is probably no coincidence. In recent weeks, the already dire situation for media professionals in Pakistan has become even worse. The country ranks 158th out of 180 countries in this year's World Press Freedom Index and has one of the highest murder rates for journalists

"We definitely have had a spate of attacks that have taken place in the last couple of weeks," said Sumit Galhotra, Asia researcher with the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in an interview with DW.

The eruption of violence against journalists comes on the heels of the latest political crisis that has gripped Pakistan and intensified in the past three weeks.

Two leading opposition figures, former cricket legend Imran Khan and Muslim cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, have rallied tens of thousands of their supporters to stage sit-ins and march on the country's Parliament in Islamabad to demand the ouster of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, accusing him of rigging last year's election. Last weekend, events spiraled out of control and three people were killed, while hundreds were injured.

New threat

As a result, journalists reporting or commenting on the protests and its leaders have found themselves in the crosshairs. "There has been an increase in violence against journalists who cover the protests as well as certain media outlets, both state-owned and privately-owned media outlets," said Karlekar.

"Journalists are not able to cover these events safely," added Galhotra.

The rise of this new opposition movement, it appears, has spawned yet another group - besides the country's Islamists and elements of the military - that is hostile to adversarial journalism.

"Their supporters [Khan and Qadri] have been into clashes with journalists and they have been attacking several media persons, confiscating their equipment and attacking their vans," said Galhotra.

Quraishi doesn't know who is behind the death threat, but assumes it could be related to the protests: "I would think so because it came after some tweets I had done about Khan's meeting with the army chief," he said.

Cautious and undeterred

Quraishi said he takes the threat seriously, and has gone public and taken steps to increase his security. "I just have to be very cautious. Other than that what else can you do?"

Quraishi and others are right not to take these threats lightly, according to CPJ's Galhotra.

"In a place like Pakistan we take a death threat very seriously because our research shows that more than half the journalists who have been murdered there have received threats in the past," he said.

But as far as his journalism work is concerned, Quraishi remains undeterred. He said he is carrying out his work as before. And judging by the frequency of his tweets, he won't be stopping any time soon.