Overview
- President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in Sunday’s World Press Freedom Day messages, promised a safer climate for the media and warned about misinformation, AI misuse and platform manipulation.
- The Freedom Network said it verified 129 violations from April 2025 to March 2026, including two murders and 58 legal cases that were mostly filed under the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act, a cybercrime law amended in 2025.
- The Pakistan Press Foundation separately logged 233 cases from January 2025 to April 2026 that included assaults, criminal complaints, arrests and detentions, showing pressure that is legal, physical, digital and financial.
- A KUJ–HRCP seminar at the Karachi Press Club on Sunday adopted a resolution that urged repeal of PECA, an end to censorship and harassment, and stronger wage and safety protections for media workers.
- The global risk picture stayed bleak, with CPJ counting a record 129 journalists killed in 2025, most in Gaza, underscoring why Pakistani unions are pushing for concrete safeguards.