Over 200 journalists targeted in Pakistan amid media crackdown: Report

Tolerance for online dissent, as well as attacks and harassment against journalists and bloggers, including the tragic murder of four journalists.

ANI, ISLAMABAD [Pakistan],29 April 2024 : Media freedom in Pakistan faced significant challenges last year, with more than 200 journalists and bloggers targeted through legal notices, according to a Freedom Network report released ahead of World Press Freedom Day. , Dawn reported from the 'headline'. 

The erosion of freedom of expression: The silencing of citizens, political parties and the media', the annual report covers the period from May 2023 to April 2024, highlighting an increase in state-driven intimidation and predatory actions by non-state actors Is. The report highlights a worrying trend of decline. 

Tolerance for online dissent, as well as attacks and harassment against journalists and bloggers, including the tragic murder of four journalists. These incidents not only eroded the boundaries of freedom of expression but also increased the risks to media freedom in Pakistan, as Dawn reported that over 70 legal notices were sent to media professionals."

A 'Joint Investigation Team' of various government departments resulted in a number of people who were tasked to identify persons allegedly running defamation campaigns against certain judges. 

However, the Chief Justice later said that he would not listen to the complainant. and the judiciary was being used to target free speech. 

Four journalists lost their lives during the period under review, with a total of 104 cases registered against media personnel, including murders, including injuries, kidnappings, and legal proceedings. The three ruling regimes expressed through their actions "a year between May 2023 and April 2024." 

Freedom has developed a dangerous consensus among its most powerful political and state figures to reduce the limits of tolerance for dissent, especially online.

The report underlined that amid the crackdown on journalists and bloggers, political activists themselves were also targeted, indicating a broader attack on freedom of expression. This action coincided with warnings and actions from high-ranking officials, leading to a climate of fear "Political activists also fell into the net.

 All this happened against the backdrop of warnings of action by high officials, including top government functionaries, Following which online expression has been regularly targeted. The report also raised concerns over government efforts to pass the 'E-Safety Bill and Personal Data Protection Bill', which aims to regulate online content and punish social media users. 

The report warns that the state's intention to weaponize regulations on online content, especially journalism and social expression, will not only institutionalize coercive censorship. It will also put Pakistan's growing digital economy in danger.

“Acute political polarisation and governance and economic instability saw three governments in the one year between May 2023 and April 2024… Through their actions all three ruling dispensations seemed to have evolved an alarming consensus among its most powerful political and state figures to lower their threshold of tolerance to freedom of expression, particularly online dissent,” the report underlined.

A pattern of crackdowns in the past year emerged that saw dozens of journalists and bloggers slapped with legal notices, some being arrested, and others attacked and aggressively intimidated, according to the report. “Political workers also came in the dragnet. All this transpired against a backdrop of warnings of actions by high officials, including top government functionaries, followed by regular targeting of online expression.”

The report noted major failures of key state actions and targeting of other journalists and free speech practitioners by non-state actors that reversed the freedom of expression dial in Pakistan in the period under review, including a near-universal suspension across the country of mobile phone services on February 8 polls. The curtailment of access to information and freedom of expression also included frequent network shutdowns and prolonged social media platform suspensions.

The report also expressed concern at renewed government attempts to legislate in the coming weeks the ‘E-Safety Bill and Personal Data Protection Bill’.

Both were approved by the federal cabinet of Shehbaz Sharif’s previous government in July 2023. The bills aim to establish separate authorities with powers to penalise ‘posters of content’ on social media platforms.

“Adverse policy actions, such as the state’s intent to weaponise regulations of online content, particularly social media platforms, including journalistic and social expression, will not only institutionalise coercive censorship but also put other Pakistan’s rising digital economy in peril,” the report warned. The report, however, documented “small victories” in defence of freedom of expression and media freedom. These included: The Supreme Court, acting in January 2024 on a joint petition filed by the associations of court journalists, ordered the Federal Investigations Agency to suspend notices issued to journalists. The Lahore High Court in November 2023 quashed a case against a journalist charged with hate speech and sedition and in February and April 2024, the Sindh High Court and the Islamabad High Court, respectively, ordered the suspension of social media platform ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) to be revoked.