Digital Rights Foundation's latest report reviews the recent laws and measures passed by the Pakistani government and their detrimental impact on freedom of expression.
This statement was originally published on digitalrightsfoundation.pk on 26 February 2025.
Digital Rights Foundation’s latest report, Bytes Behind Bars: Decoding Pakistan’s digital expression legislation, looks at the impact of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) and other laws that are ostensibly designed to tackle cybercrime, but in reality have a detrimental impact on freedom of expression in Pakistan for journalists.
Journalists and practitioners that work across Pakistan’s media industry have, through their high visibility as reporters, borne the brunt of the heavily regulated media and overall social media landscape. Launched through the Initiative for Digital and Media Freedoms project, Bytes Behind Bars examines how PECA and other overly broad legislations play out in Pakistan’s legal system and, along with the nation’s law enforcement agencies, continue to restrict the freedom of expression of journalists, and by extension, greatly weaken healthy political and social discourse in Pakistan.
Bytes Behind Bars also noted that the overly broad and aggressive approach of the government towards the regulation of digital spaces in Pakistan has led to a “chilling effect” phenomenon, wherein journalists and others will practice self-censorship as a form of pre-emptive protection, in the face of repressive government frameworks and legislative actions.
Several of the participants who graciously took part in our research expressed frustration with what they viewed as the theatrics of online legislation and regulation, used as a means of signalling what speech is acceptable and what is unacceptable. The report also notes that the state continuously turned to extra-legal mechanisms to further target online speech and dissenting speech, despite the powers granted under existing legislation with overly broad provisions.
Recent amendments to the PECA that were entered into law early in 2025 give this report an additional sense of resonance and urgency, as they potentially shrink the room for freedom of expression, and expand the draconian repression and “chilling effect” on journalists and other tellers of truth to power. That national and international journalist organisations have condemned the amendments as well as the PECA itself speak to a growing mass cognisance of the dangers faced by journalists, particularly at a time when censorship is on the rise once more.
“Digital Rights Foundation has cautioned, time and again, that there must be a balance between public safety and fundamental rights, without the former overshadowing the latter. This is especially the case when journalists and others are doing work vital to a healthy democracy,” DRF Executive Director Nighat Dad said. “This report highlights the damaging impacts of PECA and other similar legislations on freedom of speech and press freedom. It further analyzes how democratic norms of a healthy society are weakened through the repression and self-censorship faced by journalists and citizens overall.”
As a participant interviewed for this research concluded, “the net result of these laws is negative.” Journalists and practitioners already work in a fraught environment with little job security and guarantees for protection. Pakistan’s legislative landscape for media and digital regulation must be revisited to ensure that laws do not add to their precarity and muffle critical voices, but instead deliver true justice and accountability.
Access the report here
