ISLAMABAD: President Human Rights Cell of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Farhatullah Babar on Saturday expressed concern over the state of press freedom in the country and urged the political parties to compel the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to place six monthly report before Parliament as required under the law.

“It is a grim thought that on the world press freedom day today Pakistan, according to the ‘Reporters Without Borders’ has earned the dubious distinctions of joining the ranks of those 42 countries where either there is no press freedom at all or if there is some semblance of it the profession of journalism has become most dangerous occupation,” said Mr Babar in a statement on the eve of World Press Freedom Day.

“It is no less an agonising thought that according to the same report Pakistan touched a new low of ranking 158 in terms of freedom of press in the comity of nations and is bracketed with Afghanistan and some other countries facing a very serious situation in respect of freedom of press,” he added.

According to Mr Babar, the dubious distinctions has placed Pakistan almost at par with Palestine, at serial 163 on the scorecard, where Israeli forces killed nearly 200 journalists during the last 18 months, 42 of them during the performance of their journalistic duties.

Mr Babar said the year 2025 started on a most inauspicious note for journalists as it began with changes to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) that had exposed journalists reporting online to intimidation, harassment and subjected to grave abuse of judicial processes by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) with impunity and without accountability, as never before.

Mr Babar called upon the political parties and members of Parliament to ensure implementation of Section 53 of the Peca Act and compel the FIA to place six monthly reports before Parliament detailing the actions taken by it under Peca. The failure of the Parliament to do so has emboldened the FIA to get away with torturing and humiliating journalists with total impunity. This situation, he said, could not and must not be allowed to persist.

The PPP Human Rights Cell also expresses deep concern over the weakening of the economic model of media undermining press freedoms.

It also strongly condemns the blatant advertising restrictions on some media outlets by the government who refuse to peddle the “official truth and official narrative.”

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2025