The All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS), the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) and the Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) have all condemned the intimidation and threats directed against Mir Shakilur Rehman, owner and chief executive of Jang Group, the countryÂ’s largest media group.Rehman is the chairman of the PBA and former president of the APNS and the CPNE. Briefing members of these organisations, Rehman said he had been subjected to great pressure and threats since the beginning of 2007, including an attempt on his life, for which he had filed a criminal complaint in a city police station in Karachi. He said that he had faced the pressures and challenges to the best of his ability but found it necessary to inform the media community of the threatening situation faced by him.
Rehman said the latest threat to the Jang Group was an email by a Taliban outfit, which had threatened to blow up the printing press and the staff of the Jang publications unless they stopped printing photographs of young women.