On October 3, the NGO, "Centre du Commerce International pour le Développement” (the International Trade Center for Development), hosted a UN side event entitled "Journalism and Right to Information in Armed Conflict”. This event highlighted how journalists in Pakistan are subjected to torture, harassment, and violence by Pakistan's state entities and proxies.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 68 journalists were murdered in Pakistan between 1992 and 2025. For example, a week before the event, Pakistani journalist Imtiaz Mir was shot to death in Karachi. Mir, an anchorperson for private TV channel Metro 1 News, was heading home in a car driven by his older brother when six suspects riding two motorcycles fired on their vehicle. Then on October 2, Islamabad police stormed the National Press Club (NPC), attacking several Pakistani journalists.
The Pakistan Press Foundation expressed outrage over this violent raid and assault of journalists by police at the National Press Club. According to Pakistani media reports, police raided the club, located in the heart of the capital, Islamabad, to arrest Kashmiri journalists who had reported on a "call to protest" by the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), the body that called for protests in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) against Pakistan's Shehbaz Sharif government.
Footage shared on social media and by press outlets showed police manhandling, pushing, and shoving journalists inside the club’s premises.
Police also entered the press club’s kitchen, breaking crockery and detaining two press club employees for a short period. Two photographers and three press club staff members were injured, reported the Express Tribune.
Speaking to PPF, Daily Khabrain reporter Adil Abbas shared that he was in the press club cafe with his colleague Raja Rukhsar at the time of the raid. Abbas said he suffered head injuries; Rukhsar was also severely beaten and injured.
In another violent attack, Bol News reporter Tayyab Baloch was targeted outside Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on September 8. The incident occurred during a media talk by Aleema Khan, the sister of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party founder Imran Khan. The Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) said that "it is entirely unacceptable that the journalist was attacked for asking a question, allegedly by party workers and incited by a party lawyer."
Alongside Baloch, other journalists present attempted to intervene but were also attacked. Footage and photographs from the incident showed Baloch on the ground while he was manhandled.
These violent attacks are part of the wider siege that Pakistani journalists are under. Journalists across Pakistan are increasingly facing crackdowns, enforced disappearances, travel bans, frozen bank accounts, job dismissals, and exile for challenging the country’s entrenched power structures.
Journalist and television anchor Samina Pasha, for instance, said her bank account was frozen on the orders of Pakistan’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA). She called it part of an escalating effort to silence independent journalists.
In a video message shared on social media, Pasha said that journalists are systematically targeted.
“Speaking the truth comes at a cost,” she said. “We were first made jobless and forced to sit at home. Now the state is going further, using new tactics to silence us."
She explained that she discovered her account was blocked when she attempted to withdraw cash from an ATM. “The bank informed me that following a complaint from NCCIA, my only functional account was frozen,” she said.
Pasha added that she had been told of “seven or eight complaints” registered against her but had received no official notice. “When there is no respect for the law and constitution, this is what happens,” she remarked.
The move, she said, will directly affect her only remaining source of income: “I lost my job last October and have been at home for a year. Whenever I tried to find work, I was told there was no clearance to hire me. Now even my YouTube income will be blocked because of the frozen account."
Pasha is not the only Pakistani journalist whose financial autonomy is curtailed. Meher Bokhari, a seasoned anchor and spouse of veteran broadcaster Kashif Abbasi, also discovered that her account was frozen on the orders of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
Abbasi himself remains grounded by a no-fly list. He was taken off air by ARY News earlier this year after he criticized the 26th Constitutional Amendment and questioned the legitimacy of the 2024 elections and more.
“My wife went to the bank today and was told her account is frozen. My name has been on the no-fly list for months. This is absurd—have we lost our citizenship rights?” Abbasi wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Abruptly firing journalists due to their critical opinions of the government appears to be a long-term norm in the country. In August 2022, ARY News terminated Arshad Sharif just weeks before his tragic assassination in Kenya, an incident widely believed to be politically motivated. Similarly, Hamid Mir was suspended from Geo News in May 2021 after voicing support for assaulted journalist Asad Toor.
Travel bans are another method used to intimidate and restrict the freedom of speech for journalists in Pakistan. In a recent case, immigration authorities at Islamabad airport prevented journalist Asad Ali Toor from travelling outside Pakistan.
In a post he shared on X, Toor said that he was traveling from Islamabad to Washington, DC, for the purpose of attending the 12-day International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) organized by the U.S. State Department. Toor said that he was barred from traveling by immigration authorities who stated that his name was on the Provisional National Identification List (PNIL).
Meanwhile, journalists in Pakistan (and even the family members of exiled journalists) are subject to enforced disappearances. Journalist Asif Karim Khehtran and the brothers of U.S.-based exiled Pakistani journalist Ahmad Noorani remain missing.
Noorani's mother told CPJ that her two sons were abducted from their home on March 18. She said that around midnight on March 18, about two dozen individuals, identifying themselves as police, forcibly entered and searched Noorani’s family home in Islamabad. They assaulted the journalist’s two brothers, Mohammad Saif ur Rehman Haider and Mohammad Ali, dragged them into vehicles, and took them to an undisclosed location.
Another journalist, Khehtran, disappeared on March 13 from his home district of Barkhan in Balochistan province. There is no information about his whereabouts, according to independent news outlet ANI news and human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari, who is following the case and spoke to CPJ.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Senate in January passed controversial amendments to the country’s cybercrime laws, which would criminalize the “intentional” spread of “false news” with prison terms of up to three years, a fine of up to 2 million rupees (US$7,100), or both. The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists announced nationwide protests against the amendments, calling them unconstitutional and an infringement on citizens’ rights.
At least nine journalists have been abusively targeted under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) since it was amended in January. A new amendment intended to strengthen this legislation was introduced in Pakistani Parliament last month. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warned of the growing instrumentalization of this controversial law to repress critical voices and called for its repeal:
Between arrests, summonses and online censorship, the January 2025 amendment to the PECA, has exposed journalists to a series of arbitrary measures, often triggered by online publications. The amendment expanded the scope of the law, allowing it to stifle criticism by introducing vague definitions of prohibited content. For example, it bans content for which 'sufficient reasons exist to believe it may be fake or false,' content deemed contrary to 'the ideology of Pakistan,' and content 'likely to cause or create a sense of fear, panic.' The January amendment also created a government-controlled regulatory authority and introduced penalties of up to three years’ imprisonment.
Since the start of the year, at least nine Pakistani journalists have been prosecuted under the PECA, according to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Ministry of Interior. It is also used as a pretext to block journalists’ YouTube channels.
In September 2025, a new amendment to this controversial law was introduced to end the exemption from liability for Internet service providers (ISPs), hosts, platforms, and social media.
"This means they would be required to promptly remove any content deemed reprehensible – based on the same vague criteria – or face sanctions that could also target their executives," said the RSF.
On August 22, freelance journalist Khalid Jamil was arrested by the NCCIA. He was accused of sharing “highly intimidating” content on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). Although he was released on bail after his court appearance on August 23, legal proceedings remain ongoing. On 25 August, Irfan Khan, director of Azaad Digital and vice-president of the Peshawar Press Club, received a summons from the cybercrime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) after posting allegations of corruption against a local official. He still faces the threat of prosecution.
Journalists’ YouTube channels are also targeted on a massive scale. On July 8, at the request of the NCCIA, an Islamabad court ordered 27 YouTube channels to be blocked under the PECA, accusing them of spreading “anti-Pakistan” content.
According to the website JournalismPakistan.com,
Media analysts argue that freezing bank accounts, blocking travel, and manipulating employment are part of a systematic pressure campaign. By restricting financial independence and mobility, the state seeks to make outspoken journalists rethink their editorial lines. This represents an escalation from traditional censorship, moving beyond bans on programs to direct personal and financial targeting.
The message is clear: dissent comes at a personal cost. The result is a chilling effect, with many journalists opting for self-censorship or leaving the country altogether. Figures like Sami Ibrahim have been sidelined, while others such as Moeed Pirzada, Ahmed Noorani, Sabir Shakir, and Wajahat Saeed Khan have chosen exile.
At its core, this strategy appears to serve two objectives:
Control the Narrative: By sidelining dissenting voices, especially those questioning elections, human rights abuses, and constitutional changes, the state ensures a sanitized media landscape.
Send a Warning: Each high-profile case, from Sharif to Abbasi and now Bokhari, serves as a cautionary tale to others in the profession.
Yet the approach risks long-term damage. The erosion of press freedom not only undermines Pakistan’s democratic credentials but also signals to international watchdogs that freedom of expression is under siege.
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