Pakistan journalists faces problem of balance reportage

More than a dozen towns, cities and districts in Pakistan's restive province of Balochistan have been without newspapers for the past month.

Journalists are too scared to produce them, and vendors are too afraid to sell them. The doors of the local press clubs are locked. 

In October, the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF), a banned separatist group, issued an angry ultimatum to local journalists, whom they blamed for collaborating with the media wing of the Pakistan Army. 

The BLF accused the journalists of failing to print its claims of responsibility for attacks. "If you do not stop publishing one-sided propaganda we will take strict action," the group warned in a statement. 
Balochistan, in the west of Pakistan, has been the scene of a long-running nationalist insurgency.

Foreign journalists need to seek special permission to visit the majority of the province, while the Pakistani media is often wary of reporting on what is considered to be one of the most sensitive issues in the country. 

According to the International Federation of Journalists, 29 media workers were killed in the province between 2007 and 2015. 

The Pakistani military has been accused of torturing and "disappearing" dissidents. Insurgent groups have also killed members of non-Baloch ethnic groups. 

Speaking on condition of anonymity, local reporters told the BBC that earlier this year they had been warned by civil and military authorities in the province they would not "tolerate the version of militants in newspapers." They were ordered not to publish anything attributed to the insurgents.

UCJ, UNILORIN.