Threats, Attacks Against Pakistani Journalists Increased By Over 60%: Report

News Desk

Islamabad: As many as 140 cases of threats and attacks against journalists, media professionals, and media organisations were reported in Pakistan between May 2022 and March 2023. This is an average of around 13 cases a month, or at least one violation every three days, compared to one every five days in 2021–22.

The Freedom Network’s annual Pakistan Press Freedom report, which is released in connection with World Press Freedom Day marked globally on May 3 every year, notes that the country’s media environment has become riskier and more violent in recent months. The data shows that press freedom violations jumped to 140 in 2022–23 from 86 in 2021–22, indicating an annual increase of around 63 percent.

Freedom Network is a media rights organisation that tracks press freedom violations around the year and publishes the annual report, which also documents the killings of at least five journalists in Pakistan in the period under review.

Freedom Network Executive Director Iqbal Khattak said, “The escalation in violence against journalists is disturbing and demands urgent attention.”

“Attacks on independent journalism prevent people from getting access to crucial information, which is especially harmful when there are continuing political and economic crises because the public needs trustworthy news to comprehend the problems and take action, ”Khattak added.

“It is ironic that Pakistan, in 2021, became the first country in Asia to legislate on the safety of journalists, but one and a half years later, the federal and Sindh journalists’ safety laws have not helped a single journalist, resulting in increasing violence against them,” Iqbal Khattak stated.

Freedom Network urges Prime Minister to urgently fulfil his promise made at an international conference in Islamabad on November 2, 2022, marking the international day to combat impunity for crimes against journalists, to notify the safety commission required under the federal Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Act 2021 so the law passed with bipartisan support by the national parliament can start helping journalists. The commission’s absence continues to promote impunity for crimes against journalists.

The Executive Director also urged the Sindh government of Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to equip its notified provincial safety commission under the Sindh Protection of Journalists and Other Media Practitioners Act 2021 with resources so that, under the chairmanship of jurist RasheedRizvi, it can help journalists and thereby empower them to combat the impunity of crimes against journalists in the province.

Assault, threats and physical attacks form majority of violations: The main types of violations against the journalists were 51 cases (36 percent) of assault, 21 cases (15 percent) of attacks that resulted in damage to equipment, the homes of journalists, or the offices of news organisations, and 14 cases (10 percent) of offline or online threats, including seven death threats. Together, these three types of violations accounted for nearly 60 percent of the total 140 cases.

Islamabad most dangerous region for journalists: Overall, Islamabad emerged as the riskiest place to practise journalism in Pakistan, with 40 percent of the violations (56 out of the total 140 cases) recorded there. Punjab was second worst with 25 percent of the violations (35 cases), and Sindh was a close third at 23 percent (32 cases).

TV journalists most frequently targeted: TV was the largest victim medium, with at least 97 (69 percent) of the 140 cases against its practitioners. The second most targeted medium was print, with 26 journalists targeted (19 percent), while digital journalists were attacked or threatened in 15 cases (11 percent).

Political parties among leading threat actors: Allegedly the biggest single-source threat actor targeting media was political parties, which were suspected by victim journalists or their families in 21 percent of the 140 cases.

Equally troublingly, state functionaries were a close second, with suspected involvement in 19 percent of the total cases. The remaining two significant threat actors were multisource categories. These were the miscellaneous ‘Others’ (including private individuals, etc.), with 27 percent of cases attributed to them, and the multisource ‘Unknown’, with 24 percent of cases.

Violence against women journalists: Women media professionals, including one transgender woman journalist, were targeted in at least eight cases. One woman journalist was killed during the coverage of a political rally. Other forms of violence reported against women journalists included assault leading to injury, digital threats, and offline threats of physical harm.