Pakistan's press crackdown continues, reports 86 cases of attacks on mediapersons in 2021-2022

2021-2022 was a year of deadly attacks on media personnel and journalists in Pakistan as nearly 86 cases of attacks and violations against media and its practitioners took place in the nation over the course of one year.

According to the research and analysis report by Freedom Network, an award-winning Pakistan-based media rights watchdog reveals that the state actors continue to be the largest threat source for journalists in Pakistan in a period marked by a dramatic escalation of coercion by the former Imran Khan government resulting in violence, legal cases, abductions, detentions and threats.

The report was released to mark the World Press Freedom Day observed globally on May 3.

"As the digital media landscape is the new horizon over Pakistan, the government is more than anxious to crack down on online freedom and digital journalists are the systematic target of harassment, abuses and legal threats. We must protect our borderless Internet freedom," Iqbal Khattak, the executive director of Freedom Network, said on the issue, Dawn reported.

The space for free speech and truthful accounts in Pakistan is shrinking. There is a continuing trend of targeting journalists working for digital media and the plight of media continues to remain unaddressed.

As attacks against journalists are taking place everywhere, the data shows that no place in the four provinces, Islamabad or even Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir is safe in Pakistan.

Freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Pakistan last year remained under 'severe pressure', according to the report released by the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) on Monday.

( With inputs from ANI )