By Ashrafuddin Pirzada
LANDIKOTAL: Pakistan remained deeply hostile to journalism and its practitioners in 2025-26 despite a drop in documented violations against the media in the preceding year. About 10 cases a month, their nationwide spread and severity in the period showed that fewer violations did not mean greater safety, according to a new report.
Media watchdog Freedom Network’s head told The News that the latest annual Impunity Report 2026, “From Violence to Lawfare” revealed that the situation has further escalated for journalists across the country.
The report “Process as Punishment for Journalists,” produced with technical assistance from International Media Support (IMS), authored by Adnan Rehmat and Iqbal Khattak, finds that “impunity has evolved from a failure to punish violence into a broader system of coercion.”
Iqbal Khattak, who is the most senior journalist, mentor and trainer, said the report was released on 29 October ahead of the International Day to End Impunity, observed worldwide, including in Pakistan, on 2 November each year.
“Despite the presence on the statute books of two laws to combat impunity for crimes against journalists, such a finding should be a matter of concern for those at the helm of affairs of the two safety commissions established under these laws,” Freedom Network Executive Director Iqbal Khattak said on this occasion.
He added that cases documented from October 2025 to August 2026 included one work-related killing, three attempted assassinations, 18 threats of murder or harm, 11 assaults, 13 legal actions and 32 threats of legal action. Punjab recorded 49 cases – just over half the total –followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Islamabad and Balochistan. He said digital and freelance journalists were targeted most often, adding that victims or their families identified government authorities and officials as alleged instigators in nearly two-thirds of cases.
Senior researcher, writer and trainer Adnan Rehmat told The News that the report highlighting crime and punishment in Pakistan’s journalism world refers to the controversial Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) law and its increasing use against journalists to punish dissent by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) as “central to this legal siege” of online journalism in the country.
He said a detailed analysis of the report on representative PECA-related cases against journalists shows a recurring pattern of complaints.
Adnan explained that allegations of defamation, false information, harassment, or reputational harm against media practitioners “were repeatedly channelled through cybercrime procedures,” including cases where reporting “concerns public expenditure, corruption or official conduct.” He added that even without a confirmed FIR or conviction, summons, device scrutiny, travel, legal costs, detention, repeated hearings and reputational harm “made the process itself punitive. He said “relief was commonly limited to merely bail or procedural protection rather than final vindication.
The report includes a guideline for journalists and other media practitioners in dealing with PECA-related cases if targeted to minimize harmful effects of lawfare, he explained.
The report also regretted the lack of institutional safeguards for media practitioners despite two high-powered safety commissions – one at the federal level and another at the Sindh level – being in place.
“Institutional safeguards for media practitioners remain inadequate. The federal journalist protection mechanism is effectively dysfunctional, while the Sindh Commission, although more visible, has limited reach and demonstrated protection impact outside Karachi,” according to the report, Adnan Rehmat said.
The report “calls for operational, resourced safety bodies; clearer protections for journalism and public-interest expression in PECA; strict safeguards governing notices, arrests and device seizure; independent tracking of attacks and prosecutions; rapid legal aid, psychosocial and digital-security support; stronger employer responsibility; and enforceable accountability for both perpetrators of violence and officials who misuse legal process.”
He said Pakistan has a long track record of impunity for crimes against journalists, with over 170 journalists documented as killed in the line of duty since January 2000. The killers of only three of these murdered journalists have been punished, leaving the rest without justice.
It may be mentioned here that three journalists in the district of Khyber have been charged with 3MPO on account of a news report published and shared on social media this week, warning others to remain cautious. Several others are being threatened and intimidated by authorities and terrorists for their reporting.
