Famous Pakistani journalist, Hamid Mir, off air after comments about the military

Hamid Mir, who works for Geo New in Pakistan is one of the country’s most well-known journalists. He called out the military last week on television.

Capital Talk, Mir’s show, will not feature him as the host from Monday. Sources have told Al Jazeera that the network was pressured to fire the journalist.

Just a few days ago, another journalist, Asad Ali Toor was attacked for making critical comments about the military and the government.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said, “Forcing a popular news talk show host like Hamid Mir off the air after voicing criticism of Pakistan’s military—and support for a fellow journalist—only underscores the lack of true press freedom in Pakistan,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Critical comments about key state institutions are an important component of democracy, not a scourge to be eliminated.”

Al Jazeera reported that Mir said about the military there: “If you’re breaking into our homes to assault us, well, we cannot enter your homes as you have tanks and guns, but we can make things public, things from inside your homes,” Mir said at the protest, alluding to the military’s involvement.

In 2014, Mir was attacked and wounded with bullets for another one of his programmes on TV.

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