Press freedom in Pakistan has latest casualty — the arrest of ARY News journalist

In a dramatic turn of events that yet again put a question mark on press freedom in the country, Pakistan’s biggest private news broadcaster ARY News has been suspended and its senior journalist arrested for allegedly being critical of the Shehbaz Sharif government and airing “seditious” content.

According to ARY, Ammad Yousaf was arrested without a warrant by police officers and other plain-clothed persons who forcibly entered his residence. The police allegedly also diverted the CCTV cameras installed at the journalist’s house and took away his licensed weapons and the DVR of the CCTVs. Soon after Yousaf’s arrest, President and CEO of ARY Digital Network- Salman Iqbal and anchors Arshad Sharif and Khawar Ghuman were also booked under ‘sedition’ charges.

Journalist bodies across Pakistan have called for a nationwide protest if Yousaf is not immediately released. The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has also pointed out that due to the lack of information, journalists are getting increasingly concerned for the well-being of Yousaf.

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ARY News had on Monday aired a programme on how the ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), had reportedly activated its strategic media cell to malign Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan.

This isn’t the first time ARY News has been subjected to suspensions by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA).

Earlier this year, the news group found itself in trouble when PEMRA suspended the broadcaster in parts of the country. However, the suspension was short-lived as the Islamabad High Court intervened.

The arrests of senior executives at ARY is the latest blow to press freedom in Pakistan. The country ranks 157 on the Reporters Without Border’s Press Freedom Index of 2022, below war-torn Afghanistan and Russia.

The laws in Pakistan also have a role vis a vis press freedom. In 2021, the Imran Khan-led government had proposed a Pakistan Media Development Authority (PMDA), which would have “media tribunals” that could impose fines on journalists and media organisations who violate its code of conduct or publish what they deem “fake news”. Media houses and rights activists had shown vehement opposition against the PMDA. Hundreds of journalists protested against the proposed bill and Dawn had called this “no less than a declaration of war against journalists”.

Commenting in the proposed law, journalist and a founder president of the South Asian Free Media Association, Imtiaz Alam had written in The Wire“The intent is not to throttle all means of communication, as the PMDA is being designed to do, for the sole purpose of blanket autocratic control to further suffocate media to a virtual death.”

The Imran Khan government had also introduced an ordinance to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 (PECA), that would allow law enforcement agencies to prosecute journalists. This was declared unconstitutional by the Islamabad High Court: “The criminalisation of defamation, protection of individual reputations through arrest and imprisonment and the resultant chilling effect violates the letter of the Constitution and the invalidity thereof is beyond a reasonable doubt,” said the order by Chief Justice Athar Minallah.

In 2021, a new bill Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Bill was drafted in consultation with journalists’ organisations and union groups. The bill was also passed in the Pakistani Senate. It aims to provide Pakistani journalists protection and rights of security, privacy, non-disclosure of sources and independence when performing professional duties. But Section 6 of the same bill prohibits journalists or media professionals from spreading “false information” or creating material that “advocates hatred”, or constitutes “incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence” without defining any of these terms and leaving them up for interpretation. This loophole nullifies the bill in its entirety.

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Journalists in Pakistan are regularly subjected to trolling online and violence offline. In February 2022, Mohsin Baig, editor for the news outlet Online and a vocal critic of the government, was arrested for making “obscene” remarks about Imran Khan. In May 2022, Pakistani police launched criminal proceedings against at least six journalists and talk show hosts for “spreading hate against the army and state institutions in their reporting.” In July 2022, two journalists were killed, a columnist was tortured, and the police arrested an anchor of a political show on YouTube- all in the span of one week.

Pakistan has also ranked ninth for two consecutive years (2020, 2021) on the Global Impunity Index, which assesses countries where journalists are regularly murdered and their assailants go free. According to reports, 138 Pakistani media professionals lost their lives in the line of duty between 1990 and 2020.

Reporters without Borders has observed that “as the military has tightened its grip on civilian institutions, coverage of military and intelligence agency interference in politics has become off limits for journalists.” This seems to be the case with ARY.