Islamabad, June 8: Highlighting “an alarming deterioration in press freedom” in Pakistan, Reporters Without Borders (RWB/RSF), the global watchdog of press freedom, has called on the new Pakistani establishment in Islamabad and the provinces to adopt “urgent measures” to protect media freedom.
Pointing to journalists’ killings, social media blockage, abductions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, and censorship, the watchdog called Pakistan one of the most dangerous countries for journalists.
“The many press freedom violations reveal a climate of violence and a determination to censor that has little in common with the undertakings given by the political parties in their elections campaign manifestos, and the message of support for journalists by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The strategy of suppressing critical voices is becoming ever more visible, amid claims that the results of the election were tainted by fraud and continuing army interference in politics.
“Pakistan remains one of the world’s most dangerous countries for media personnel, and the level of impunity for murders of journalists is appalling. RSF reiterates its call to Pakistan’s new leaders at the national and provincial level to adopt urgent measures to restore press freedom,” the RSF statement said quoting Célia Mercier, head of RSF’s South Asia desk.
The statement recalled examples of impunity, such as the murders of journalist Nasrullah Gadani in Sindh and YouTuber Kamran Dawar in North Waziristan, the mysterious disappearance of POK based poet, human rights activist, and freelance journalist Ali Ahmed Farhad Shah, detentions of journalists Sher Afghan and Ghulam Mustafa, as well as the arbitrary detention of journalists and closure of the Quetta Press Club.
The letter also spoke of the “new censorship measures” through the creation of the National Cyber Crimes Investigation Agency (NCCIA) to monitor online content, as well as the controversial Punjab Defamation Act of 2024, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) banning the TV news coverage of “ongoing court cases”, and the continued blocking of X (formerly Twitter).
