WHILE some within the state may think that punishing outlets that refuse to toe the line may snuff out critical voices, in the modern age this is next to impossible. In fact, targeting mainstream voices — for example banning advertisements to the Dawn Media Group — will only hurt credible outlets, with unverified gossip and fake news filling the void.

For the last several months, the Dawn Media Group has been subjected to an unannounced ban on government ads. While the newspaper had been enduring this for 13 months, the restrictions have now been extended to the group’s TV and radio outlets.

Pakistan’s leading media bodies have called out this targeting of Dawn.

On Friday, the Council of Newspaper Editors said the ad ban was akin to “financially crippling the organisation”, while the All Pakistan Newspapers Society said that the step had been taken to “force the media group to change its editorial policy”. A Joint Action Committee of media bodies, including the PFUJ, has issued a similar statement.

This is not the first time this group has been facing the state’s wrath. The so-called Dawn Leaks saga springs to mind.

It must be asked why Dawn is being singled out, and at whose behest ads have been stopped.

Government ads are a major source of revenue for Pakistani publications. Instead of giving Dawn its due share, certain dummy publications are patronised to please influential backers of the government.

These funds are not coming out of the coffers of any political party or institution; this is the taxpayers’ money, and the public’s right to know is being denied by throttling independent media voices. The outcome of this would be managed news, where no one dares to question the powerful.

To err is human, but this paper has always striven to uphold the highest standards of journalism, and the values its founder, the Quaid, has bequeathed it. Dawn must not be silenced.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2025