KARACHI: Pakistan has failed to combat rising impunity of crimes against journalists, an Islamabad-based independent media watchdog said on Sunday, despite the South Asian country enacting specialized laws to protect journalists two years ago.
The annual report, released ahead of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on November 2, sheds light on the challenges faced by journalists in the South Asian country.
Pakistan made history by passing two pivotal laws in 2021 for the protection of journalists: the Sindh Protection of Journalists and other Media Practitioners Act, 2021 and the Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Act, 2021, passed by Pakistan parliament.
However, the promised progress has remained elusive as the country continues to witness a concerning increase in persecution of journalists. This includes incidents of kidnapping, physical assaults, and filing of legal cases, often on unproven charges of sedition, treason, and electronic crimes, primarily by government authorities and state agencies.
“It is very disturbing to see the good work of the two legislatures – the Sindh Assembly and parliament – diluted by not making the laws fully operational to provide protection to journalists,” said Iqbal Khattak, executive director of Freedom Network.
“Both the federal and Sindh governments are responsible for effectively dysfunctionalizing their own laws and therefore delaying and effectively denying justice to journalists.”
While Pakistan’s rank improved from 157 to 150 in Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index in 2023 due to the enactment of these laws, the legal framework’s true potential could not be fully realized, according to the report, titled ‘One Step Forward, Two Steps Back – Pakistan Legislates on Safety of Journalists, But Still Fails to Protect Them.’
Shocking statistics by the Freedom Network revealed that 37.5 percent of the 248 recorded violations from August 2021 to August 2023 occurred in Islamabad alone, with Sindh being the second-worst region, accounting for 22.5 percent of the violations. Tragically, eleven journalists lost their lives in the line of duty during this period.
The Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Act, unanimously passed by the National Assembly in 2021, remained largely non-operational during Imran Khan and Shehbaz Sharif’s tenures as prime ministers, while the government failed to establish a mandated safety commission, rendering the law ineffectual, according to the report.
In Sindh, although the Protection of Journalists and Other Media Practitioners Act was passed in 2021, the Commission for the Protection of Journalists and other Media Practitioners (CPJMP) was only notified one year later, with a lack of operational resources hindering its ability to provide protection and relief to journalists.
The watchdog recommended urgent formation of a safety commission under the Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Act, adequate resourcing for Sindh’s CPJMP, and the enactment of similar journalist safety laws in other provinces after the 2024 provincial elections.
It underscored Pakistan’s potential to become a global leader in combatting impunity for crimes against journalists, thanks to its specialist legislation.
“However, the realization of this promise hinges on the immediate implementation of these recommendations,” Freedom Network said in the report.
