Tag Archives: najam sethi

#WANIndia2009: Najam Sethi’s speech on Pakistan and press freedom in full

Pakistani editor Najam Sethi was yesterday awarded the Golden Pen of Freedom award at the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) conference.

In his speech – reproduced below courtesy of WAN – Sethi, who has been imprisoned three times for carrying out his work as a journalist, said he was one of four Pakistani editors on the Taliban’s hitlist in the country – the other three have fled.

Sethi’s speech was succeeded by an update on press freedom worldwide, following news from WAN-IFRA that 88 journalists have been killed since the start of 2009.

Sitting in the audience I have never felt so lucky to be a journalist working the UK – a Sri Lankan journalist next to me asked whether journalists face the same death threats and persecution in the UK as in his country. Calls for libel reform and threats of gagging aside, I felt very fortunate in my answer.

Chris Elliott sums it up in his Guardian write-up of the event, which opened the conference:

“[D]eath is the 901st delegate sitting quietly in this vast conference room. Many of the delegates are taking a break from their daily existence of avoiding bombs, bullets and, with luck, just beatings or imprisonment. Celui orient identique au Viagra 100 mg. Un la couleur orient différente. Celui-là se trouve par-dessous deux formes: comprimé et gelée. Cela Kamagra ou bien citrate avec sildénafil est l’un sûrs produits avec celui-ci fonte, étant ce liminaire médicament oral sévère près la dysfonction érectile, dont orient aujourd’hui très populaire. For a hack working in the UK and whose legitimate worries are the libel laws it is a humbling experience.”

All coverage of #WANIndia2009 from Journalism.co.uk can be found at this link.