Media freedom in Pakistan enters the spotlight after Danish journalist issued with deportation order

Pakistan’s ambassador to Denmark, Fauzia Abbas, has been called to meet with the Foreign Ministry today to explain why a Danish journalist has had her visa revoked.

Puk Damsgård Andersen has worked in Pakistan since 2004 as a freelance correspondent for a number of Danish newspapers, including Jyllands-Posten.

In January, however, Pakistani authorities requested she leave the country. Her deportation order is currently on hold and she was due to meet with the Danish and Pakistani representatives in Pakistan yesterday to clarify the situation.

Conservative Pakistani newspaper The Nation, citing sources within the Interior Ministry, reported that Andersen was being deported because she was a target for extremists and authorities were unable to offer her protection.

The newspaper also reported that the Dane had distributed copies of the controversial Mohammed cartoons and ‘her stay with an American official of the US embassy also raised many doubts about her character’.

Danish Foreign Ministry spokesman Poul Kjar said today’s meeting would be about Andersen’s case and ‘the more general principal of working conditions for Danish journalists in Pakistan’.

Foreign minister Lene Espersen has also made her feelings clear in the case and said it represents a threat to freedom of expression in Pakistan.

‘I find it completely unacceptable that barriers are preventing journalists from carrying out their legitimate work. It’s a serious matter and a threat to freedom of speech in Pakistan when the free press cannot operate without intervention from the authorities,’ Espersen said.

Jyllands-Posten editor Jørn Mikkelsen said Andersen had always acted with the utmost professionalism when working as a correspondent in Pakistan and that the paper would do what it could to protest the deportation decision.

‘Harassment from the Pakistani side is a blow to the media’s right to report freely. This is a very important case which calls on solidarity from all sides,’ he said.

Andersen herself is currently in Islamabad waiting for the situation to be resolved.

‘It’s surprisingly easy to be a journalist here. People are very nice and helpful and I haven’t been made to feel I’m unwanted. But apparently the authorities believe I am.’