ISLAMABAD seems to have developed quite a thin skin. A letter sent to the prime minister on Wednesday by leading international and domestic press freedom and other rights groups, rather than read like agitation, presents an inventory of grave concerns. The signatories warn that space for independent journalism is shrinking and urge the government to honour its constitutional promises and commitments under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The timing is telling. Since the 27th Amendment and creation of the Federal Constitutional Court, watchdogs argue that judicial oversight in cases involving attacks on the media has weakened. Whether correlation amounts to causation is open to debate, but there is little dispute that the environment for independent journalism has grown more restrictive. Judicial inaction in high-profile murder cases has deepened a pattern of impunity that endangers reporters across the country. Subtler instruments are proving just as effective. The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act — originally sold as a necessary response to online harms — has become a convenient tool. Its vague provisions have facilitated FIRs, arrests and prosecutions over reporting that would once have been regarded as routine scrutiny of state institutions. The result is not merely a handful of cases but a widening culture of self-censorship. Editors internalise the risk; reporters recalibrate their questions. Silence, increasingly, does the rest.

Legal pressure is only part of the squeeze. Financial throttling completes the picture. The quiet withholding of government advertising from disfavoured outlets, including this paper’s group, is an object lesson in how to discipline a newsroom without issuing a formal ban. In Pakistan’s fragile media economy, public advertising is oxygen. Redirecting it towards compliant or obscure publications amounts to using taxpayers’ money to shape the news agenda. It also weakens established outlets, leaving a vacuum readily filled by rumour and partisan noise. The letter’s references to detained journalists and those in exile underscore the human cost of these trends. But the larger issue is structural. A democracy confident in its legitimacy does not fear scrutiny. Repealing or reforming draconian provisions, restoring fair access to public advertising, and ensuring accountability for attacks on journalists would signal that Pakistan values a free press, not as an adversary, but as an essential pillar of the republic.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2026