Pakistan's PM Shehbaz Sharif slams Imran Khan after media watchdog downgrades Pakistan

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday that Pakistan's 12-point plunge on the Press Freedom Index during last year has not only earned his predecessor Imran Khan a shameful title of "press freedom predator" but also placed the country's democracy in bad light.

In its latest index of 180 countries, the Reporters Without Borders, an international non-governmental organisation working to safeguard the right to information, placed Pakistan at 157, comparing 145 in 2021 and 139 in 2018, when Khan, a cricketer-turned-politician, assumed the office.

"Pakistan fell 12 points on Press Freedom Index during last year of Imran Khan's govt & 18 points during his tenure. It not only earned him shameful title of ‘press freedom predator’ but also placed our democracy in bad light," Sharif tweeted, a day after the World Press Freedom Day.

Sharif, who successfully led the Opposition parties to oust Khan in a no-confidence motion in Parliament last month, vowed that his government was fully committed to freedom of press and speech in Pakistan, a coup-prone country.

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In its report, the RSF painted a bleak picture of media freedom in Pakistan, ranking the country 157 out of 180 with a score of 37.99.

Pakistan's Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb, in her message, tweeted that the ultimate conscience of society is a responsible conscientious free press and its contribution is transparency, accountability as well as a healthy discourse with high standards of ethics and journalism.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said that restrictions on media outlets and civil society undermine Pakistan's image as well as its ability to progress.

"We are aware of significant restrictions on media outlets and civil society, more broadly in Pakistan," Blinken told reporters at a news conference.

At least 86 cases of attacks and violations against media and its practitioners, including journalists, took place in Pakistan over the course of one year – between May 2021 and April 2022, The Express Tribune quoted a report as saying.

While the overall number of documented violations in the preceding year has gone down several notches, there is a continuing trend of targeting journalists working for digital media, according to a research and analysis report by the Freedom Network, a Pakistan-based media rights watchdog that tracks violations against journalists and attacks on freedom of expression on a regular basis.

Pakistan's powerful Army, which has ruled the country for more than half of its 75 years of existence, has hitherto wielded considerable power on matters of security and foreign policy.

Ever since its founding in 1947, Pakistan has oscillated between civil society’s quest for greater press freedom and the political and military elite’s constant reassertion of extensive control over the media, the Reporters Without Borders said in its report.

Despite changes in political power, a recurring theme is apparent: political parties in opposition support press freedom but are first to restrict it when in power, it said.

Pakistan’s media regulators are directly controlled by the government and systematically put defence of the executive government before the public’s right to information. 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, it said.

"Pakistan is one of the world’s deadliest countries for journalists, with three to four murders each year that are often linked to cases of corruption or illegal trafficking and which go completely unpunished, the report said.

"Any journalist who crosses the red lines dictated by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) – an intelligence agency offshoot – is liable to be the target of in-depth surveillance that could lead to abduction and detention for varying lengths of time in the state’s prisons or less official jails," it said.

Furthermore, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's leading military intelligence agency, is prepared to silence any critic once and for all," the report added.