Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), an international press...

Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), an international press rights group, condemned the sentencing to death of a Pakistan newspaper editor on drugs charges, calling it an attempt to gag him for his critical reports.
In a letter to President General Pervez Musharraf, the Paris-based RSF called for the military ruler to ensure a fair hearing of Rehmat Shah Afridi's appeal and to grant him a pardon if the harsh sentence is upheld.
Afridi, chief executive and editor-in-chief of the Peshawar-based, English-language daily The Frontier Post, can appeal against the death sentence within a week, legal sources said."RSF fears that the journalist was punished more for his critical coverage of Anti-Narcotics Force activities than for supposed drug trafficking," RSF general secretary Robert Menard said in a statement. His arrest came weeks after his newspaper published stories accusing ANF officers of being involved in drug smuggling.