Fear itself becomes the mechanism of control
In the months following Pakistan's 27th constitutional amendment, eighteen international press freedom organizations have formally warned Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that independent journalism in the country is being systematically dismantled — not through a single act, but through an accumulating architecture of legal harassment, institutional impunity, and transnational reach. The letter, led by the Committee to Protect Journalists, places Pakistan's current trajectory in tension with its own constitutional guarantees and its ratified obligations under international human rights law. At stake is not merely the safety of individual reporters, but the public's capacity to understand how power is exercised in their name.
- Since November 2025, journalists across Pakistan have reported a sharp rise in surveillance, intimidation, and explicit threats — fear itself has become the primary instrument of editorial control.
- High-profile murders of journalists have gone unprosecuted, and the new Federal Constitutional Court has coincided with weakened judicial oversight rather than stronger protections for the press.
- Pakistan is now pursuing and convicting journalists who live abroad, a practice the international groups identify as transnational repression — an attempt to silence dissent across borders.
- Afghan journalists inside Pakistan face accelerating detentions and deportations, potentially returning them to danger in Afghanistan in violation of the non-refoulement principle.
- The eighteen organizations are demanding repeal or substantial reform of PECA 2016, an end to overseas journalist prosecutions, and an immediate halt to Afghan journalist deportations.
Eighteen international organizations devoted to press freedom have sent a formal letter to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, warning that the country's media environment has deteriorated sharply since November 2025, when Pakistan adopted its 27th constitutional amendment establishing a new Federal Constitutional Court. Led by the Committee to Protect Journalists, the groups argue that rather than strengthening protections for journalists, the institutional change has coincided with weakened judicial accountability — including the failure to prosecute high-profile murder cases involving media workers, reinforcing a pattern of impunity that leaves reporters at serious physical risk.
Across Pakistan, journalists have reported increased legal harassment, surveillance, and threats. The organizations describe a 'chilling effect' in which the fear of consequences discourages coverage of state institutions — making fear itself the mechanism of censorship. Compounding this, authorities have shown little willingness to hold accountable those who attack journalists, ensuring that violence against the press carries few consequences.
The letter raises two additional concerns. First, Pakistan has begun prosecuting journalists living abroad, which the groups characterize as transnational repression — an expansion of press restrictions beyond the country's own borders. Second, Afghan journalists residing in Pakistan face increasing detentions and deportations, potentially into danger, in what the organizations argue violates the international principle of non-refoulement.
Central to the groups' demands is the reform or repeal of Pakistan's Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, amended again in 2025, whose vague language they say has been weaponized against legitimate journalism. Taken together, the organizations warn that what Pakistan has constructed is not a single crisis but a system — one in which legal tools, institutional changes, and expanding reach combine to make journalism itself a riskier profession, and to diminish the public's access to information about power.
Eighteen international organizations devoted to press freedom and human rights have sent a formal letter to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, warning that the country's media landscape has deteriorated sharply in recent months. The Committee to Protect Journalists led the effort, joined by seventeen other groups, to document what they describe as a systematic narrowing of space for independent journalism across Pakistan.
The timing of their alarm is specific. In November 2025, Pakistan adopted a constitutional amendment—the 27th—that established a new Federal Constitutional Court. The international groups argue that rather than strengthening protections for journalists, this institutional change has coincided with weakened judicial oversight in cases involving attacks on the media. High-profile murder cases involving journalists have gone unprosecuted, the letter states, reinforcing what the organizations call a pattern of impunity that leaves reporters and editors at serious physical risk.
Since the amendment took effect, journalists working across Pakistan have reported a sharp increase in legal harassment, surveillance, intimidation, and explicit threats. The organizations use the phrase "chilling effect"—a term of art in press freedom discourse—to describe how this environment discourages journalists from pursuing stories that scrutinize state institutions or power. The fear itself becomes the mechanism of control. At the same time, authorities have failed to hold accountable those who attack journalists, creating a situation where violence against the press carries little consequence.
The letter raises a second concern that extends beyond Pakistan's borders. The government has begun prosecuting and convicting Pakistani journalists who live abroad, a practice the international groups characterize as transnational repression. Targeting journalists outside the country represents, in their view, an alarming expansion of restrictions on press freedom and an attempt to silence dissent from a distance.
A third crisis involves Afghan journalists. Pakistan has recently increased detentions and deportations of Afghan media workers living within its borders. The international organizations are calling on Pakistani authorities to halt these deportations immediately, particularly for journalists facing credible threats to their safety if returned to Afghanistan. The principle they invoke—non-refoulement—is a cornerstone of international refugee law: no country should return a person to a place where they face persecution.
The organizations have also trained their focus on a specific piece of legislation: Pakistan's Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act of 2016, amended again in 2025. The law's language is vague enough, they argue, to allow authorities to file charges against journalists, independent media outlets, and digital platforms for legitimate reporting on state institutions. The act has become a tool for silencing coverage rather than a genuine crime-prevention measure. The groups are calling for either the complete repeal of PECA or substantial amendments that would protect journalists and restore the public's right to information.
Underlying all of these concerns is Pakistan's obligation under its own Constitution and under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a treaty Pakistan has ratified. Both documents guarantee freedom of expression and the press, and both require governments to protect journalists from violence, intimidation, and unlawful interference. The letter frames the current situation as a violation of commitments Pakistan has already made to the world.
What the international organizations are documenting is not a single crisis but a system: legal tools that can be weaponized against journalists, institutional changes that weaken accountability, a failure to prosecute crimes against the press, and an expanding reach that pursues journalists even beyond the country's borders. The cumulative effect, they warn, is that journalism itself has become a riskier profession in Pakistan, and the public loses access to the information it needs to understand how power operates.
Citas Notables
Rather than strengthening protections for journalists, these changes have contributed to a more restrictive and uncertain environment for independent journalism.— Joint letter from 18 international press freedom organizations
Targeting journalists abroad represents an alarming expansion of restrictions on press freedom beyond national borders and amounts to transnational repression.— Joint letter from 18 international press freedom organizations
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
When you say the constitutional amendment 'coincided with' weakened oversight, are you suggesting the amendment itself caused the problem, or that it simply created an opening?
The letter doesn't claim direct causation, but the timing is damning. The amendment established a new court structure, and immediately after, judicial accountability in media cases appears to have collapsed. Whether the amendment was designed to do that or simply enabled it, the result is the same: journalists lost a layer of protection they had before.
The 'chilling effect' phrase—that's about fear, right? Not about laws that explicitly ban reporting?
Exactly. The laws are vague enough that journalists don't know what will trigger prosecution. PECA's language is so broad that reporting on government institutions becomes legally risky. You don't need explicit censorship when journalists are afraid to publish in the first place.
Why are they deporting Afghan journalists specifically? What's the Pakistani government's stated reason?
The letter doesn't say. But the context matters: Afghanistan is controlled by the Taliban, which has its own hostile relationship with independent media. Deporting Afghan journalists back there is effectively sending them into danger, which is why the international groups are invoking the non-refoulement principle.
Is this new, or has Pakistan always had a difficult press freedom situation?
The letter says the situation was 'already challenging' before November 2025. But something shifted. The organizations are specifically warning about deterioration since the amendment. This isn't a chronic problem suddenly becoming acute—it's a chronic problem getting worse, faster.
What does the government say in response?
The letter doesn't include any statement from the Pakistani government. This is an appeal, a warning, a public record of concern. Whether the government responds, and how, is the next chapter.