Intimidating Pakistan's Press - NYTimes.com LONDON - The Shura-e-Mujahedeen, a group affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban, recently reissued a year-old fatwa describing Pakistani journalists and media outlets as "enemies of the mujahedeen." The decree threatened several radio stations and included photographs of the popular political talk show hosts Hamid Mir and Hasan Nisar, accusing them of promoting secular and Western values and spreading anti-Muslim propaganda. The fatwa was first issued following widespread condemnation by Pakistani journalists of the Taliban's attempt to kill the teenage education activist Malala Yousafzai in October 2012. The announcement raises concerns about journalists" safety in a country that is already among the deadliest in the world for reporters. The Taliban has a history of directly threatening Pakistani journalists. The Taliban claimed responsibility for killing Mukarram Khan Aatif, a radio journalist who was shot in a mosque in Peshawar in January 2012 after they accused him of failing to convey their views. In June 2012, Taliban gunmen opened fire on the Karachi offices of Aaj TV as a warning against broadcasting criticism of their group. And later last year, a bomb was found planted under Hamid Mir's car after he took to the airwaves to denounce the Taliban attack against Yousafzai. Journalists based in Pakistan's tribal belt along the border with Afghanistan and the northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province work in constant fear of the Taliban. According to a recent report, all the journalists in the tribal areas and 87 percent of those in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa admit to feeling threatened by militants. The Taliban are not the only ones who intimidate and attack Pakistani journalists: Up to 79 percent of reporters in the tribal region also say they feel threatened by state security forces, according to the same study. The Taliban campaign against Pakistani journalists is worrying but also ironic, given that the mainstream media is regularly criticized by liberals for being too sympathetic toward militant groups. The fact that the media is under attack from both the right and the left shows how challenging public discourse in Pakistan has become. The mainstream, Urdu-language media frequently side with the Taliban. For example, last week, one of Pakistan's most respected academics, the physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy, was harangued on air for defending Yousafzai by two prominent columnists, who, like the Taliban, asserted that the teenager's memoir contains anti-Islam content. The talk show host giggled as a shouting match ensued. One of the columnists repeatedly accused the professor of ignorance. Hoodbhoy fought back, calling his critics "media Taliban." Prominent journalists and talk show hosts repeatedly call for the United States to halt drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal belt, echoing the Taliban's main demand as a condition for peace talks with the government. The media has also tried to whip up anger over the 2007 military operation against armed militants and radicalized seminary students seeking sanctuary in Islamabad's Red Mosque. High-prolife media personalities have also espoused extremist and intolerant views that mirror the Taliban's stance on social issues: The talk show host Mubasher Lucman recently led a campaign against the teaching of comparative religion in a private school; the morning show host Maria Khan chased down and castigated unmarried couples out on dates in Karachi's parks; and the televangelist Aamir Liaquat Hussain hosted a show in 2008 on which Muslim clerics declared that members of the minority Ahmadi community were deserving of death. For Pakistani journalists working in Taliban-controlled areas, parroting militant views might be a survival tactic. But for those based in the country's urban centers, far from direct Taliban pressure, their stance is likely a reflection of their own beliefs. Finding a way to distinguish between appeasement and agreement with Taliban views could make all the difference in Pakistan's fight against violent extremism.