Democracies usually carry some pretty strict provisions against accusing anybody of a crime prior to a guilty judgement by a court.
The tenent of “innocent until proven guilty” is a foundation of the system and anybody, including the press, who falsely accuses an individual of being a drug dealer (for example) faces some pretty stiff criminal and possibly civil penalties. Cases of individuals suing newspapers for false accusations are quite common in the west.
One thing that struck me when reading an article about some arrests in Pakistan involving drug dealers and traffickers is that the newspaper seemed to go to great lengths to identify not only the individuals involved in the arrests, but also the vehicles they were using to transport the drugs.
Now, while it only says that the individuals were arrested, which doesn’t fall outside the parameters of what any western newspaper would do, they also identified the cars, going as far as to identify them by their registration numbers.
The public identification of vehicles that are apparently used in drug supply is something that could have quite dire consequences for their (as yet untried and therefore innocent) owners in the future.
Anyone want to buy a slightly used Toyota Camry, registration Peshawar 8572?
I sure as hell don’t.