| Ali Khân |
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| Poet, Writer, Journalist |
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Save the Journalists
by Ali Khan Murder is a murder, whether it is committed by Pakistanis, British,
Americans, Israelis or any other nationality. We should condemn all the
murderers without any prejudice based upon a simple logic that a human
being has no right whatsoever to take another fellow human being’s life
for any reason. Indeed, I strongly condemn the heinous murders of Mr. Daniel Pearl, Mr.
Raffaele Ciriello, an Italian Free-lance Photographer, and others and
offer my cordial condolences to their families and friends. However, I would like to add that most of the American media outlets
claim to be International, such as CNN, The Wall Street Journal, etc., and
yet at the same time they keep their National Identity and agendas. They
consistently ignore any underlying circumstances which escalated to the
heinous murders and tend to use the murders, for their own benefit to
spice up their daily coverage and to win the war of ratings as per their
agenda. It has been said about these media outlets that they are so
powerful and monopolistic that they can bury any great story, partially or
on the whole, upon their will or discretion without leaving any trace. In
other words, we, the public, do not have any right to decide what we are
going to watch, listen or read today; however, they do. Let us look at the scenario of Mr. Daniel Pearl’s murder as a case
study. During the kidnap crisis of Mr. Pearl, which ended up with his barbaric
murder, it was reported repeatedly in the Western media that Mr. Pearl was
a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. It was further stated that he had
been kidnapped due to his involvement writing a story on Mr. Richard Reid.
Mr. Reid is a British national who was arrested on a Paris-to-Miami flight
in December after he allegedly tried to ignite explosives hidden in his
sneakers. But it was unknown that Mr. Pearl was of Jewish descent and
possibly a citizen of Israel until it was reported in the Israeli
newspaper, Ha’aretz. Later on, through the same media outlets, who failed to report about
Mr. Pearl’s Jewish descent, we learned that the video of barbaric murder
of Mr. Pearl has been acquired by the authorities. In said video, Mr.
Pearl was asked by his murderers to say loudly that he and his family are
Jewish before killing him. It clearly demonstrates that the motives of Mr.
Pearl’s murderers were not only national but also religious. On February 21, 2001, Mr. Peter R. Kann, publisher of The Wall
Street Journal, and Paul E. Steiger, managing editor of The Wall
Street Journal, released a statement calling Pearl's death, ''An act
of barbarism that makes a mockery of everything Danny's kidnappers claimed
to believe in. They claimed to be Pakistani nationalists, but their
actions must surely bring shame to all true Pakistani patriots.'' Indeed, the culprits of Mr. Daniel Pearl’s barbaric murder must be
punished in Pakistan where they committed the crime. However, the statement, released by Mr. Peter R. Kann, publisher of
The Wall Street Journal, and Paul E. Steiger, managing editor of
The Wall Street Journal, is irrational, illogical and emotional, due
to its lack of accepting any responsibility whatsoever by The Wall
Street Journal management that Mr. Pearl was intentionally sent to
Pakistan by the Wall Street Journal Management. The Wall Street Journal,
knew or should have known that Pakistan is not a suitable destination for
reporters or journalists of Jewish descent, especially those who claim
Israeli citizenship, or have family members who do, as Pakistan has never
officially accepted Israel as a bonafide nation. I will be very surprised to learn if Mr. Peter R. Kann, publisher of
The Wall Street Journal, and Paul E. Steiger, managing editor of
The Wall Street Journal, did not know that Pakistan is a
"semi-fundamentalist" country according to a Time’s report about the
Islamic world, published in the early 90s. It is highly unlikely that
Pakistan will ever become a moderate or secular state since it was founded
on the religious ideology of Islam. Further, Pakistanis, are non-Arab
Muslims like their counterparts in Indonesia and Malaysia (Only 15% of the
world Muslim population is Arab, rest 85% are non-Arabs) etc, who devoutly
support Palestinian struggle for freedom for religious reasons.
Consequently, neither Pakistani citizens like to see Israelis in their
country nor Pakistan Government acknowledges Israel, as an independent
country. Therefore, there is no diplomatic relationship between Israel and
Pakistan. As a matter of fact, any Islamic Republic of Pakistan Passport
can not be issued to any Pakistani citizen, without these wording, "This
Passport is valid for all countries of the world except Israel" in four
International languages on its Page No. 5. Travel Information Manual, – A joint monthly publications and Standard
Reference Manual of the several IATA members airlines, clearly warns with
reference to Pakistani Immigration Rules and Regulations, "the Government
of Pakistan refuses admission to nationals of Israel; they are recommended
not to transit Pakistan. Change of aircraft, even if not leaving the
airport, is not allowed to these nationals" Further, The Wall Street Journal statement issued by Mr. Peter R. Kann,
publisher of The Wall Street Journal, and Paul E. Steiger, managing
editor of The Wall Street Journal, does not provide any logical
argument as to why this barbaric act (Daniel Perl’s murder) committed by
some lunatics, such as the September 11th attacks, "must surely bring
shame to all true Pakistani patriots". If we were to follow that logic of collective responsibility, then why
not bring shame on the West for the barbaric bombing of Iraq, Sudan and
other countries. Why does this collective shame not extend to the entire
Jewish community for the on-going Israeli atrocities against Palestinian
civilians or against an Italian journalist. Either Mr. Peter R. Kann and Mr. Paul E. Steiger never thought about it
or they are too biased to admit the reality of their ethnic bias in
manufacturing their brand of journalism, a brand that is unfortunately all
too dominant among the "managing editors" of the Western media outlets.
Ms. Ann Cooper from Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) declined to
comment when asked why her organization does not protest the Wall Street
Management to take the partial responsibility of Mr. Pearl’s death. CPJ
claims to help to "protect" journalists being an "impartial" organization.
Obviously, Pakistan or any other country is not going to change its
Immigration Rules and regulations contrary to its own citizens’ emotions
just because of lack of responsibility of some "managing editors" from
abroad. Regarding the State Department’s announcement of a 5 million dollar
award for the information about Mr. Daniel Pearl’s killing, I can not help
but ask myself what State Department has done for the American missionary
couple who was kidnapped in the Philippines by a separatist militant
group. Why didn’t the State Department announce any financial reward for
them? Is Mr. Pearl’s murder or kidnap crisis is more important or precious
or different from the others? And what about all those journalist killings by the Israeli Defense
Forces to report the everyday Israeli holocaust of the Palestinian
civilians. Are there any courageous "managing editors" to bring shame to
all the Jewish community? Or these "favors" are only showered upon
developing countries? In a nutshell, we should expect from The Wall Street Journal Management
and all other media outlets’ management to take the responsibility for the
safety of their journalist and reporters, much as we expect parents to
care for the children, by not, for example, sending their young beautiful
teenage daughters into the streets at night in a bad neighborhood. They
should not send vulnerable journalists or reporters due to their
background or some other reason to the countries where their life can be
in danger to avoid any future barbaric murder or kidnap mishap. I know most of the Western journalists are biased and less than candid
in their reporting. This is a belief shared by most of the people in the
Middle East, South Asia and rest of the world. In the interest of further
clarity, American Jewish journalists are considered public relations
officers for the IDF and the Israeli government, especially in the Muslim
countries. So in the interest of saving precious human lives, the
"managing editors" of media outlet should think twice about whom to send
to cover the Muslim world. After all, they are journalists, unarmed humans like me, and they
should not be exposed to unwarranted dangers. Last but not least, regarding their partiality, like every optimistic
person, I believe in change for good, eventually. I hope and believe that
they will reclaim their ethics of journalism, sooner or later. Also read:
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