n April 19, 2014, Pakistan’s leading broadcast journalist Hamid Mir was attacked by unidentified assailants in Karachi soon after he landed in the city. He received multiple bullets but survived the attack. The attack was interpreted by most people as an attempt to send a message across the media fraternity to fall in line with the state or face the repercussions. For many years, Pakistan’s largest media group, Jang, as well as other media outlets remained targets of severe restrictions. Geo TV network was shut down across the country and journalists on some other platforms were given unbridled ‘freedom’ to malign fellow journalists and media groups that had been critical of the state policy until the realisation of a ‘hybrid regime’ in 2018.

Pakistan has had a poor record of freedom of expression generally. However, the last five years have been extremely ugly vis-à-vis media freedom. Self-censorship has increased considerably. Five years ago, the concept of ‘positive’ reporting was introduced. Those who disagreed were picked up, tortured and jailed or taken off air. The first thing the ‘hybrid regime’ did was to hit the media with a financial squeeze by stopping government advertisements and delaying payments it owed to the media industry. Almost all news channels and newspapers laid off staff or slashed and delayed payment of salaries to their employees. The then information minister, Fawad Chaudhry, questioned the revenue model of traditional media, saying: “The news media wants the government to sponsor them. How can the government sponsor them? It will either have to take loans or impose more taxes in order to give them money.” Many TV show hosts, including Hamid Mir and Talat Hussain, as well as many analysts were forced off screens. Newspapers, TV channels and digital forums were minutely monitored. A single tweet or a sentence spoken in a current affairs show critical of the regime was treated as an assault.

Journalist Rauf Klasra remembers that under former premier Imran Khan Twitter accounts of journalists were monitored and many were forced to delete posts containing anything against the regime. “If a journalist tweeted against the PTI government, Imran Khan would direct the security agencies to have the tweet deleted,” Klasra recalls.

Targeted campaigns were launched against certain journalists on social media platforms through networks established by the ruling party, the government and some other institutions in order to malign them. Their patriotism was questioned and their lives put at risk. The government, through its favourite TV channels, poisoned the minds of young followers with a narrative that all critical voices were ‘anti-state’ and ‘agents’ of some enemy country.

Pakistan ranked 9th and 10th on the Committee to Protect Journalists global indices of 2021 and 2022, respectively. However, Pakistan’s press freedom ranking improved from 157 to 150 out of 180 countries of the world in the year 2023.

Hamid Mir was taken off air. Journalist Absar Alam was shot in the abdomen while he was taking a walk in Islamabad but survived. Broadcast journalist Matiullah Jan was abducted from outside a school in Islamabad. Journalist Asad Ali Toor, known for being critical of the government, was attacked at his home in Islamabad by three unidentified men who beat him up and warned him to stop criticising the government.

TV anchor Rizwan Razi was picked up from his house in Lahore for an investigation into his remarks against some institutions and the government. Journalist Amir Mir, a caretaker Punjab minister today, was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency under the Cybercrime Act. Incidents of journalists and political activists going missing were also reported from Karachi and other cities.

Media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières) noted that the influence of the military establishment increased dramatically once Imran Khan became prime minister in July 2018. Pakistan ranked 9^th and 10^th on the Committee to Protect Journalists global indices for 2021 and 2022, respectively. However, Pakistan’s press freedom ranking improved from 157 to 150 out of 180 countries of the world in the year 2023.

Imran Khan was ousted from power after a historic no-confidence motion succeeded on April 9, 2022. The former PM then launched an aggressive campaign against the military who, he said, had removed him from power through a conspiracy hatched by the Americans. He also accused sections of the media of complicity.

During the PDM rule, the media started getting briefs from the government to stop airing Khan’s speeches and statements on TV channels. And then the May 9 events happened. He was arrested on corruption charges and the arrest led to countrywide protests. Scores of political leaders and protesters were arrested. Several journalists considered pro-Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf were either picked up or encouraged to leave the country. Arshad Sharif, a prominent TV anchor, who left the country fearing persecution for his pro-PTI views, was murdered in Kenya in mysterious circumstances.

All told, 43 journalists were killed over the last four years in Pakistan. Only one suspect was arrested.

There is grave concern that much of the space regained by democratic forces and the media after the Musharraf government has been lost.

“I think [that since May 9] we have lost the space that we had since the Musharraf era. We lost that freedom of speech,” a journalist told the BBC recently. It is believed that it will take years, if not decades, to regain that space.

The writer is a senior broadcast journalist. He has worked with several news channels in Pakistan