Malala shooting: Pakistan Taliban threaten journalists for negative coverage
Pakistanis carry candles and photographs of gunshot victim Malala Yousafzai during a protest against the assassination attempt in Islamabad on October 11, 2012.
KARACHI, Pakistan — Several Pakistani news organizations have been forced to increase security after the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan announced that they would target journalists and media centers in Pakistan that are portraying the Taliban negatively while covering the shooting of 14-year-old Pakistani rights activist Malala Yousafzai.
According to the Express Tribune, Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud compiled a list of targets for Taliban fighters to attack. According to a Pakistan Intelligence report, several prominent Pakistani journalists are on the list.
The Guardian reported that one journalist in Swat, the region of Pakistan where the attack on Malala took place, has been given a police escort as he is believed to be on the Taliban's hit list.
"Undoubtedly this is the worst press the TTP has ever had, there is no doubt," Rana Jawad, Islamabad bureau chief at Geo News, told the Guardian.
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A Pakistan Taliban commander, quoted by the Daily Beast, explained that "for days and days, coverage of the Malala case has shown clearly that the Pakistani and international media are biased," and argued that 99 percent of the reporters covering Malala's shooting are using the incident as an excuse to attack the Taliban.
According to The News International, an English-language daily in Pakistan, the Taliban did not expect the shooting of Malala to play such a large part in the public's sentiment toward the Taliban.
Malala, who is currently in England, is expected to make a good recovery after a surgery in which doctors removed a bullet lodged near her spine last Wednesday.
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