Latest news with #IqbalKhattak
Express Tribune
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
'Media faces existential threat in Pakistan'
Pakistani media is standing at a crossroad amid an existential threat and increased restrictive environment, deteriorating safety and job security, significant challenges to professional integrity of media and its practitioners, according to Freedom Network's annual Freedom of Expression and Media Freedom Report 2025. Titled "Free speech and public interest journalism under siege," the report finds that the existential crisis was triggered by amendments to Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) in January 2025 that now "makes it easier" for authorities to arrest, fine and imprison journalists and dissidents – both offline and online – besides other challenges. "The existential threat is serious as such a situation is seen rare in Pakistani media history. This situation is threatening the very foundation of democracy and the state is more brutal now than it was before to tolerate hard questions," Freedom Network Executive Director Iqbal Khattak said. The report launch coincides with World Press Freedom Day being commemorated globally on 03 May, including Pakistan, every year. The report provides an overview of the freedom of expression and media freedoms in Pakistan prevalent during May 2024-April 2025. "These challenges reflect the broader shrinkage space for media freedoms in the country. Such a declining media space means citizens will have little access to information they need to know," Khattak said. Five journalists were killed during the period this report covered. Three journalists were killed in Sindh province and two in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province while at least 82 journalists and other media professionals had faced different types of threats during the same period. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa emerged as the most dangerous province for journalists where 22 cases were documented while Islamabad recorded the second highest number of 20 cases against journalists and followed by Punjab – 18 cases. Four cases were recorded in Baluchistan and one in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The report said at least 14 journalists faced legal cases, mostly under PECA law while in eight cases journalists were arrested or detained in pursuance of legal cases.
Arab News
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Pakistan's cybercrime law being used as ‘tool' against freedom of expression, journalists — watchdog
KARACHI: The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) is being used as a 'tool' by state authorities to suppress freedom of expression and target journalists, the Freedom Network, a Pakistani media and development sector watchdog, said on Tuesday. The body released a data analysis for March 2025 documenting eight instances of threats against journalists, with three cases directly involving the contentious PECA legislation, according to the report compiled by the watchdog. Enacted in 2016 and further tightened with amendments this January, PECA was drafted with the stated aim to combat cybercrimes such as hacking, online harassment, and data breaches. However, journalists, human rights advocates and media bodies have widely voiced concerns that state authorities are using the law's broad provisions to silence dissenting voices and control digital platforms. Government officials have variously denied PECA is a censorship tool. The Freedom Network's report, based on data from its Pakistan Press Club Safety Hubs Network, which collaborates with major press clubs nationwide, highlights what it described as a 'worrying' trend of legal actions, arrests, enforced disappearances, censorship, attacks on journalists' residences, and physical assaults. 'The amended PECA law is proving as harmful for freedom of expression and journalism as the coronavirus was for human beings,' Iqbal Khattak, Executive Director of the Freedom Network, told Arab News. 'It is a tool given in the hands of state authorities to question any post, any report and any expression.' Among the highlighted cases registered under PECA is the arrest of Karachi-based journalist Farhan Malik, the founder of the Raftar online news channel. Malik was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Cyber Crime Wing on Mar. 20 after being summoned for an inquiry and was subsequently charged under multiple sections of PECA and the Pakistan Penal Code for allegedly running programs and publishing content deemed to be 'against state institutions.' Malik was released on bail on Monday. Another case involves Zahid Sharif, the administrator of the ZSR Digital Facebook page in Bhakkar, Punjab province. Sharif was charged under PECA and other laws after he posted a statement and images of a woman accusing local police of assault. The Freedom Network report also details other forms of threats against journalists in March 2025 including the alleged enforced disappearance of journalist Asif Karim Khetran in the southwestern Balochistan province, the censorship of an interview critical of the military on The Centrum Media (TCM) platform, and anchorperson Paras Jehanzeb's current affairs news show being put off air. The report also highlights the alleged abduction of investigative journalist Ahmad Noorani's brothers in Islamabad after he published a controversial report about the Pakistan army chief's family. Information Minister Ataullah Tarar has defended the PECA bill, saying it would 'not harm but protect working journalists.' 'This is the first time the government has defined what social media is,' he told reporters after the amended law was passed earlier this year. 'There is already a system in place for print and electronic media and complaints can be registered against them.' Tarar said 'working journalists' should not feel threatened by the bill, which had to be passed because the Federal Investigation Agency, previously responsible for handling cybercrime, 'does not have the capacity to handle child pornography or AI deep fake cases.' Tarar said the government was also aiming to bring social media journalists, including those operating YouTube accounts, under the tax framework. The operative part of the new bill outlines that a newly established Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority would have the power to issue directions to a social media platform for the removal or blocking of online content if it was against the ideology of Pakistan, incited the public to violate the law or take the law in own hands with a view to coerce, intimidate or terrorize the public, individuals, groups, communities, government officials and institutions, incited the public to cause damage to governmental or private property or coerced or intimidated the public and thereby prevented them from carrying on their lawful trade and disrupted civic life. The authority can also crack down on anyone inciting hatred and contempt on a religious, sectarian or ethnic basis as well as against obscene or pornographic content and deep fakes. Rights activists say the new bill is part of a widespread digital crackdown that includes a ban on X since February last year, restrictions on VPN use and the implementation of a national firewall. The government says the measures are not aimed at censorship.
