Islamabad, May 3 (SocialNews.XYZ) Media in Pakistan has been facing legal pressure, physical violence, digital harassment and financial coercion, according to the gist of a recent report released by the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) ahead of World Press Freedom Day 2026. The report documented at least 233 incidents of journalists being targeted between January 2025 and April 2026, which included 67 assaults, 67 criminal complaints, 11 arrests, 11 detentions and three kidnappings, local media reported.
"The Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) looms large over the report. Amended at the start of 2025 and, in PPF’s words, “bulldozed through parliament” without stakeholder consultation, it has become the instrument of choice against journalists. Of the 67 criminal complaints documented, 34 invoked Peca. Notices and summons from the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) have become, the report says, 'a repeat occurrence.' The pattern is grimly predictable: a journalist publishes something inconvenient, and a complaint follows," a report in Pakistan's daily Dawn mentioned.
Human rights lawyers Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband Hadi Ali Chattha, who had represented journalists in Peca cases, were given a 17-year prison sentence under the same legislation. The report stated that legal pressure has not replaced physical danger, but it has been added on top of it.
The report stated that journalists covering the Aurat March in Islamabad were arrested by police and held for nearly eight hours on March 8. The PPF highlighted a disregard for existing media safety laws, even when arrests were made, journalists were asked to submit their electronic devices in violation of privacy protections those laws guarantee.
The report stated that women journalists were being targetted in Pakistan through AI-generated content. PPF documented several instances in 2025-26, where fabricated material showcasing female journalists was circulated online. In November last year, journalist Benazir Shah said that an AI-generated video of her was shared shared by an account followed by the federal information minister. PPF stressed that such attacks are not made to challenge work of women journalists but to destroy her reputation through deeply personal and gendered means, Dawn reported.
The report stated that the government's withholding of official advertisements from Dawn was as an attempt to have economic impact on Pakistan's daily newspaper. Urdu daily Sahafat also allegedly faced similar treatment. Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) also issued show-cause notices to media outlets that reinforce or extend existing red lines.
A report in Dawn stated, "The report situates these failures within a broader pattern of impunity. The establishment in November 2025 of the federal Commission for the Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals was a welcome step, the report says, but cautions that it must now be made genuinely functional — with adequate resources and real independence."
Source: IANS
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