Pakistan’s Battle to Protect Journalists
Shazia Mehboob
Islamabad: Two years after Pakistan became the first country in the world to specifically legislate on journalists’ safety, the state is still failing to use this important legal instrument to combat the rising impunity of crimes against journalists, according to a report on the state of impunity against media practitioners in Pakistan, released on Sunday.
Since the promulgation of safety laws for journalists by both the Sindh government and the federal government in late 2021, Pakistan has witnessed a disturbing surge in the harassment and persecution of journalists.
These instances are particularly perpetrated by government authorities and state agencies, encompassing actions such as kidnapping, physical assaults, and the initiation of serious legal cases against journalists.
These legal actions often involve unproven charges such as sedition, treason, and violations of electronic crime laws. This alarming trend has persisted over the two years following the implementation of these legislative measures, as highlighted in the Freedom Network’s annual report released in connection with the International Day to End Impunity, which is marked on November 2.
In 2021, Pakistan achieved a significant milestone by enacting two special laws designed to safeguard the rights and security of journalists.
The Sindh Assembly passed the “Sindh Protection of Journalists and other Media Practitioners Act-2021,” while the National Assembly passed the “Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Act-2021” within a short span of time. However, it’s worth mentioning that Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and Punjab have not yet passed similar laws to provide protection in their respective regions.
According to the Freedom Network report titled “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back – Pakistan Legislates on Safety of Journalists, But Still Fails to Protect Them,” a troubling pattern has emerged. In the period spanning August 2021 to August 2023, a significant 37.5 per cent of the reported violations in Pakistan, accounting for 93 cases out of a total 248 cases occurred within Islamabad alone.
Sindh emerged as the second worst affected region in Pakistan, where 22.5 per cent of the violations were recorded, and totaling 56 cases. The report underscores the irony that most of these attacks against journalists took place during a period when regions had implemented legislation aimed at ensuring their safety.
The report highlights the challenges and shortcomings in effectively safeguarding journalists, even in the presence of safety laws. During the same period, eleven journalists lost their lives while carrying out their professional duties.
In 2021, Pakistan was ranked 157th out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index. However, by 2023, the country had made some progress, improving its media freedom rank to 150. This improvement was primarily attributed to the enactment of the two laws, which represented a legal framework acknowledging the need to address the issue of violence against journalists and combat impunity through legal guarantees.
Nevertheless, it’s crucial to note that this progress appears to be limited, and there are still significant challenges and issues to be addressed in ensuring full press freedom and journalist protection in Pakistan.
“It is very disturbing to see the good work of the two legislative bodies – the Sindh Assembly and the federal parliament – diluted by not making the laws fully operational to provide protection to journalists,” stated Iqbal Khattak, the Executive Director of Freedom Network during the release of the report.
Iqbal further emphasized, “Both the federal and Sindh governments bear responsibility for rendering their own laws less effective, which in turn results in delay and, in essence, a denial of justice to journalists.”
This highlights the need for not just passing legislation but also ensuring its effective implementation to protect journalists and uphold press freedom.
The federal Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Act was unanimously passed by the National Assembly during Imran Khan’s tenure as Prime Minister in 2021. Subsequently, Shehbaz Sharif assumed the role of Prime Minister in 2022, serving until the parliamentary term concluded in August 2023.
“In these two years, both the Khan and Sharif governments failed to establish a safety commission as mandated by the law/ This, in fact, rendered the federal law non-operational, and as a result, it failed to provide any assistance to a single one of the 93 journalists in Islamabad who were killed, attacked, injured, threatened, or harassed in the two years since its enactment.
Additionally, both governments were unable to effectively enforce the law,” as outlined in the report. This highlights a significant gap in the implementation and enforcement of the legislation, leaving journalists without the intended protection.
A somewhat similar situation prevailed in Sindh as well. The Sindh Protection of Journalists and Other Media Practitioners Act was passed by the provincial assembly in June 2021 and officially notified in August 2021.
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However, the Commission for the Protection of Journalists and Other Media Practitioners (CPJMP), which was proposed by the law, was only notified one year later, in December 2022, with respected jurist Rasheed A Razvi appointed as its first chairperson. This delay in establishing the commission impacted the timely implementation of the law, potentially leaving journalists without the intended protection during that period.
“Even after the Commission was established to oversee the enforcement of the law, the Sindh government had, as of August 2023, not provided the Commission with an office, staff, or a formal budget for its operations.
This procedural delay has severely hindered the Commission’s ability to effectively provide protection, relief, and justice for the growing number of violations against journalists and media entities in the Sindh province,” as highlighted in the press release. This underscores the significant challenges and limitations in ensuring the practical implementation and impact of legislation aimed at safeguarding journalists.
To Commission Chairperson Razvi’s credit, despite the absence of operational resources, he managed to assist several journalists in Sindh who were either kidnapped or attacked.
He achieved this by issuing notices to the provincial authorities, including law enforcement agencies, urging them to take action to either recover or safeguard the journalists.
The report highlights that these orders were duly complied with, underscoring the potential effectiveness of the Commission in reducing impunity for crimes against journalists and media in Sindh if provided with the necessary resources.
The report outlines three key recommendations for Pakistan to fully realize the potential benefits of the two legislations aimed at journalists’ safety:
- Urgently establish a safety commission under the federal Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Act.
- Provide appropriate and adequate resources, including budget allocation, office space, and staffing, for Sindh’s Commission for the Protection of Journalists and Other Media Practitioners.
- Enact similar journalists’ safety laws in Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and Punjab following the provincial elections in 2024.
The report emphasizes that Pakistan has a significant opportunity to become a leading global advocate in combating impunity for crimes against journalists, owing to the presence of two specialized journalists’ safety legislations in its statute books. These laws are the result of the collective efforts of various stakeholders over several years, especially the Pakistan Journalists Safety Coalition. However, for this potential to be realized, it is imperative that these three recommendations are implemented as a priority.
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