Press Release
ISLAMABAD, 29 October 2026: Pakistan remained deeply hostile to journalism and its practitioners in 2025-26 despite a drop in documented violations against media in the preceding year. About 10 cases a month, their nationwide spread and severity in the period showed that fewer violations did not mean greater safety, according to a new report.
Islamabad-based media watchdog Freedom Network’s latest annual Impunity Report 2026 “From Violence to Lawfare: Process as Punishment for Journalists” produced with technical assistance of International Media Support (IMS), authored by Adnan Rehmat and Iqbal Khattak finds that “impunity has evolved from a failure to punish violence into a broader system of coercion.”
The report was released on 29 October ahead of the International Day to End Impunity, observed worldwide, including in Pakistan, on 2 November each year.
“Despite the presence on the statute books of two laws to combat impunity for crimes against journalists, such a finding should be a matter of concern for those at the helm of affairs of the two safety commissions established under these laws,” Freedom Network Executive Director Iqbal Khattak said on this occasion.
Cases documented from October 2025 to August 2026 included one work-related killing, three attempted assassinations, 18 threats of murder or harm, 11 assaults, 13 legal actions and 32 threats of legal action. Punjab recorded 49 cases – just over half the total –followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Islamabad and Balochistan. Digital and independent journalists were targeted most often. Victims or their families identified government authorities and officials as alleged instigators in nearly two-thirds of cases.
The report highlighting crime and punishment in Pakistan’s journalism world refers to the controversial Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) law and its increasing use against journalists to punish dissent by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) as “central to this legal siege” of online journalism in the country.
Detailed analysis in the report of representative PECA-related cases against journalists shows a recurring pattern from complaint.
Allegations involving alleged defamation, false information, harassment or reputational harm against media practitioners “are repeatedly channelled through cybercrime procedures,” including where reporting “concerns public expenditure, corruption or official conduct.” Even without a confirmed FIR or conviction, summons, device scrutiny, travel, legal costs, detention, repeated hearings and reputational harm “make the process itself punitive,” the report says. “Relief is commonly limited to merely bail or procedural protection rather than final vindication,” It notes.
The report includes a guideline for journalists and other media practitioners in dealing with PECA-related cases if targeted to minimize harmful effects of lawfare.
The report also regretted lack of institutional safeguards for media practitioners despite two high-powered safety commissions – one at the federal and other at the Sindh level – were performing. “Institutional safeguards for media practitioners remain inadequate. The federal journalist protection mechanism is effectively dysfunctional, while the Sindh Commission, although more visible, has limited reach and demonstrated protection impact outside Karachi,” according to the report.
The report “calls for operational, resourced safety bodies; clearer protections for journalism and public-interest expression in PECA; strict safeguards governing notices, arrests and device seizure; independent tracking of attacks and prosecutions; rapid legal aid, psychosocial and digital-security support; stronger employer responsibility; and enforceable accountability for both perpetrators of violence and officials who misuse legal process.”
Pakistan has a long track record of impunity of crimes against journalists with over 170 journalists documented as killed in the line of duty since January 2000. The killers of only three of these murdered journalists have been punished, leaving the rest without justice.
Click below link for PDF version report
https://fnpk.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Impunity-Report-2026.pdf
