Pakistan has a long history of silencing media voices. In numerous incidents since1990, more than 150 journalists have lost their lives. Nearly all governments have utilized some form of media repression. Several strategies have been employed to suppress the media over the years, including new legal frameworks, physical coercion, violence against journalists, and media blackouts. The recent, suspicious killing of renowned journalist Arshad Sharif has raised concerns vis-à-vis Pakistani journalists’ safety and agency in the field and the future of the free press in the country.
Journalist Arshad Sharif died in Kenya reportedly after being shot, his wife Javeria Siddique confirmed early on Monday morning. The deceased remained critical of the top-notch Pakistani establishment and government officials, and hence, had also been banned repeatedly from the media on the same grounds. Sharif was on a work trip to Kenya at the time of the unfortunate incident. As of now, there are no conclusions on who perpetrated the murder.
Similar to Arshad Sharif’s suspicious killing, there have been many other incidents of journalists being abducted, harassed, imprisoned, or killed under questionable circumstances.
Back in April 2015, Sabeen Mahmud was shot to death by gunmen on her way home after hosting a seminar at the Second Floor (T2F) Karachi. Mahmud invited some of the same speakers and titled her event “Unsilencing Balochistan (Take 2)”. Mahmud talked with a friend on Facebook about the potential for “blowback” because she was aware of the risk she was taking by holding the event. In a letter to another friend, she said, “I want to abandon everything and join the Baloch march for the rights of their missing. What else is there to life?”
Pakistan has a comprehensive history of silencing media voices. Since 1990, more than 150 journalists have been killed in various incidents.
Almost all governments in Pakistan have used media suppression in one way or other. The former president Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who ruled the country and imposed martial law from 1978 to 1988, was accused of widespread, overt media censorship. The president’s office would get newspapers at that time, and any news that wasn’t judged proper would be censored. To protest the censorship, journalists started leaving the places where the text was blocked blank rather than replacing it with other content so that readers would know that censorship is taking place.
Although it is common to think of digital media as democratizing expression on a global scale, Pakistan’s increasingly strict rules are limiting this advantage for journalists. Sara B. Haider, who has spent eight years working in the mainstream media, says that the biggest challenge to Pakistan’s media industry’s expansion is censorship. She added that one of the fundamental principles of journalism is speaking truth to power. Society runs the risk of succumbing to harmful power imbalances if you can’t hold the government and state institutions responsible. It is frightening that the new regulations further insulate government authority from criticism than they did before.
Former military dictator President Musharraf – who would normally boast that media was free during his tenure – imposed a media ban on November 3, 2007, which lasted 90 days.
Reporters Without Borders (RWB), a global non-governmental organization devoted to defending the right to freedom of information, issued its annual ranking of countries in the Press Freedom Index in 2022, with Pakistan falling to position 157 out of 180. The nation ranked 145 on the Press Freedom Index for 2021. Pakistan’s position on the global index was reduced due to several factors, including the murder of journalists, limits placed on the news media, the removal of government advertisements, threats, harassment, and violations of independent journalism.
The press climate has gotten worse over time despite political leaders’ promises to strengthen it when they are not in the office. For instance, in its election manifesto from 2013, the PML-N pledged to enact a law protecting journalists, however, this commitment was put on hold until 2018. Instead, Pakistan’s National Assembly enacted the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill (2015) in 2016, which was criticized in particular for providing enforcement agencies with a lot of power and discretion and allowing for “sweeping internet control.”
In the same year, Pakistan was placed fourth among the ten worst nations for journalists and among the ten worst nations for internet freedom. In the latter two years of the PML-N’s rule, 157 attacks on journalists were reported between May 2017 and April 2018. In the past, senior journalists Hamid Mir in 2014 and Cyril Almeida in 2016 were victims of armed attacks. Following his revelation on a civil-military dispute in the infamous “Dawn Leaks,” Almeida was “banned from leaving the country.”
The PTI’s rhetoric also created a perilous framework for how politics and the media interact. Imran Khan later called criticisms of Pakistan’s press freedom “a farce” when the PTI official Twitter account connected negative media coverage to probable “treason” in July 2019. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) referred to Khan in 2021 as a “predator” whose rule was causing Pakistan to “relive some of the worst times of its previous military dictatorship.”
A recurring tendency emerges despite shifts in political power: opposing political parties advocate press freedom but are the first to curtail it while in control. The government of Pakistan directly controls the media regulators, who routinely prioritize defending the executive branch of government over the public’s right to information.
In addition to slapping a broad ban on live telecasts of Imran Khan’s speeches, Pakistani authorities in August 2022 charged him with violating the anti-terrorism statute. The accusation followed Khan’s threat to file a lawsuit against police personnel and a judge for allegedly torturing Shehbaz Gill, a close associate who was being held by police on sedition-related charges. However, media freedom seems to be the main victim as the current administration attempts to crush Imran Khan’s increasing populace.
The arbitrary and political use of power by successive governments to suppress political dissent and weaken the opposition has come at a larger cost to media freedom and democracy in Pakistan as both domestic politics and the media have become more polarized. This tendency shows few signs of change as each party in power looks to gain from media limitations.
With three to four murders each year frequently connected to instances of corruption or illegal trafficking that go unpunished, Pakistan is one of the world’s deadliest countries for journalists. Any journalist who transgresses the boundaries established by the “authorities” risks becoming the subject of extensive surveillance that could result in kidnapping and confinement for varied periods in state prisons or less formal institutions.
Many in the country believe that Arshad Sharif’s killing has a nexus to his being vocal about the ‘malpractices’ of certain political and government representatives. The untouchability of some institutions, and the ambiguity and lack of transparency in investigating such assassinations make one question who has the reigns in the country. Is democracy and freedom of speech a distant dream for Pakistan? Is media free only when it speaks in favor of the ruling parties?
