New York Times accuses Pakistan of censoring lead story on Islamabad-Osama bin Laden ties

A New York Times story saying Pakistan’s government protected Taliban forces was censored by the publisher’s printing partner in that country, resulting in a blank hole on the front page of its international edition. The article, a 4,800-word excerpt from a forthcoming book by Times reporter Carlotta Gall to be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt next month, appeared in New York Times magazine in the US and was intended as a front-page article of International New York Times. While the story appears on most copies of the international edition, it doesn’t show up in papers distributed in Pakistan, about 9,000 copies, according to the publisher. Gall’s reporting looks at the ties between Pakistan’s main intelligence service, ISI, and the Taliban. Her article points to Pervez Musharraf, former Pakistani president, as one of the Taliban’s protectors who knew about Osama Bin Laden’s whereabouts in Afghanistan. (In a counterpoint, CNN’s national security analyst, Peter Bergen, writes he is ‘convinced that there is no evidence that anyone in the Pakistani government, military or intelligence agencies knowingly sheltered bin Laden.’) The missing story played out on Twitter as Gall herself made light of the censorship by posting a photo of the errant edition on her account with the note: ‘Breakfast in Islamabad’.  The missing story played out on Twitter as Gall herself made light of the censorship by posting a photo of the errant edition on her account with the note: ‘Breakfast in Islamabad’. Times’s Pakistan printer, part of Express Tribune newspaper in that country, removed the article without its knowledge, according to Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy. ‘We would never self-censor and this decision was made without our knowledge or agreement,’ she said in an email. ‘While we understand that our publishing partners are sometimes faced with local pressures, we regret any censorship of our journalism.’