Dawn’s spirited defense of its journalist Cyril Almeida

Dawn came out with a scathing editorial, saying Cyril Almeida’s story on the verbal clash between government and military - which has generated a lot of heat in the country - was “duly verified and correct piece of reporting.” 

Almeida, a columnist for Dawn , on Tuesday said he has been put on Exit Control List - a border control system to bar people whose names appear on the list from leaving the country. 

He had reported that leading civilian officials had warned the powerful army to renounce its covert support to militants like the Haqqani network, Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba - or face international isolation. 

“This paper recently reported an extraordinary closed-door meeting between top government and intelligence officials where the foreign secretary briefed them on what he saw as Pakistan’s growing international isolation; following this, there was a discussion on the impediments in the way of dealing with the problem of militancy in the country,” the daily said in the editorial titled ‘Reaction to Dawn story’. 

“As gatekeeper of information that was ‘verified, cross-checked and fact-checked’, the editor of this paper bears sole responsibility for the story in question,” it said. It said in accordance with the principles of fair and balanced journalism, Dawn twice carried the denials issued by the Prime Minister’s Office. It demanded that Almeida’s name be removed from Exit Control List.