Pakistan Freedom of Expression Monitor
News with beliefs, thoughts, ideas, and emotions
It was a little past midnight on Jan 1, 2014. In the town of Badah, Larkana district, journalist Shan Dahar was standing outside a small medical store located in a narrow lane. He had been working on an investigative story about free medicines supplied by an NGO for poor patients being illegally sold to local […]
ISLAMABAD: The approval of a bill by a National Assembly’s standing committee, which proposed up to two years’ imprisonment and a fine for those who “intentionally ridicule the armed forces”, has drawn ire of politicians from across the divide as well as the legal fraternity. The criticism of the bill came on Thursday not only […]
Freedom of expression is a fundamental right. Though this right is violated in autocratic governments and dictatorships, all functioning democracies have a mechanism to defend this right without which no civilized society commands respect of the global community in the 21st century. The UN recognizes this right as enshrined in its declaration of human rights. […]
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) are deeply concerned about the proposed amendments to the Pakistan Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code 1898, by the National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior, which has recommended that persons who ‘disrespect’ or ‘intentionally ridicule’ the […]
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) rejects any attempts to further gag the fundamental right of freedom of expression in the name of preventing defamation and disrespect of the armed forces. Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP-P) Secretary General Farhatullah Babar in a statement on Wednesday expressed grave concern over a bill moved by a PTI MNA […]
ISLAMABAD: Amid stiff resistance offered by the opposition parties, a parliamentary body, on Wednesday, passed a bill seeking to make intentionally ridiculing and defaming the armed forces a punishable crime. The National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior, which met with MNA Raja Khurram Shahzad Nawaz in the chair, passed the Criminal Law (amendment) Act 2020, […]
Pakistan saw “[…] serious restrictions on free expression, the press and the internet including violence against journalists, unjustified arrests and disappearances of journalists, censorship and site blocking […]” during 2020. This analysis of the situation of press freedom in Pakistan was presented as part of the US Department of State’s 2020 Country Report on Human […]
PESHAWAR: A case has been registered against senior journalist Ghulam Akbar Marwat in Lakki Marwat over unveiling alleged corruption in the distribution of subsidized flour. The Food Department has also accused the journalist of blackmailing. The journalist community has condemned the vindictive action against the journalist over reporting malpractices. Ghulam Akbar Marwat, who is president […]