I do not think that one incidence of violence can justify another. Even if 1000 people were killed that very day this is no excuse for attack on Hamid Mir, similarly neither is this attack an excuse for others.
Attacks on famous people generate more attention among general public, this is natural.
Media exists to protect individuals' liberties including freedom of expression and if freedom of media itself is threatened, that is alarming.
If security establishment is so utterly concerned about its image why don't they address the issues insetad, like kill and dump policy in Balochistan. There is nothing new in these allegations nor is this the first time they have been leveled.
Threatening people, kidnapping them, beating them up; is this the operational procedure ? Ethical standards never bother agencies but at least they should have some operational standards. Every where in the world agencies exercise control but there should be a better way than this. One wonders, which century our agencies are still functioning in?
What public is doing here is blaming the victim. A typical TM attitude of our nation. If there are acid attacks this is fine but if someone makes a documentary on it, she should be condemned. Because as long as we can carry out such attacks without world knowing about it they are 'harmless'. If any institution threatens journalists it is fine, the only problem is them going public.
Image of a country and image of any state organ are not the same . Consider this, every one knew about Gunatanamo and prisoners abuse in Iraq. When American public and American media mounted pressure on govt to come clean on this, the world was not like, 'Only now have we discovered about the abuses and it has been proved once for all that America is the bad guy'. Instead the impression was ' the national conscience is alive, if any state institution commits such acts the nation will hold them responsible or at least American public disapproves it'. Therefore, image of Pakistan is not image of army+ image of ISI + image of media and so on; the whole is more than sum of its parts here.
Right or wrong, true or untrue an opinion was expressed. The institution with grievance should go public as well and complain only if there point of view isn't covered by media. You can not punish people or institutions just because they have a particular point of view. This is basic fundamental right; God damn it!
