Pakistan’s media is under siege, battered by legal warfare, violence, digital harassment, and financial strangulation, according to a damning Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) report released before World Press Freedom Day 2026. Over 15 months from January 2025 to April 2026, at least 233 violations against journalists were logged, encompassing 67 assaults, 67 FIRs (with PECA cited in half), 11 arrests, 11 detentions, and three kidnappings.
The shadowy Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), rammed through parliament post-2025 amendments sans debate, looms large. Now the preferred bludgeon, it triggered 34 of those criminal cases. NCCIA notices have become routine: Publish something unpopular, and complaints follow predictably, ensnaring reporters in a web of cyber probes.
The law’s bite was felt acutely by advocates like Eeman Zainab Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali, handed 17-year terms for aiding journalists. Legal nooses tighten even as beatings continue—recall the March 8 detentions of Women’s March coverage teams in Islamabad, complete with device confiscations flouting privacy laws.
Women in journalism endure targeted AI-fueled disinformation campaigns, with deepfake videos and images crafted to assault their personal dignity rather than discredit their work. Benazir Shah’s ordeal, amplified by a government-linked account, exemplifies this gendered cyberbullying. PPF documents multiple such incidents in 2025-26.
Financial chokeholds hit hard too: Dawn lost ad revenue, Sahafat faced similar squeezes, and PEMRA hounded boundary-pushers with notices. The November 2025 journalists’ safety commission offers hope, but absent funding and independence, it risks becoming another hollow gesture amid a culture of unpunished aggression.
