Since Pakistan strengthened laws targeting online content earlier this year, human rights groups and digital rights advocates have raised renewed concerns about the country's press freedom.

The amended Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) criminalizes the intentional dissemination of false information online that could incite fear, panic or unrest.

Journalists are alarmed about the potentially wide reach of the law, which allows authorities to imprison social media users for up to three years for spreading disinformation and issue fines of up to 2 million rupees ($7,121 / €6,822).

Journalists detained under PECA law

Just months after the PECA legislation was enacted, journalists Farhan Mallick and Waheed Murad were detained.

Murad, a reporter with the Saudi-owned daily Urdu News, was arrested during a nighttime raid at his residence for allegedly disseminating "online disinformation" before being granted bail.

"The law has been misused in a way that they pick up journalists prior to filing a case against them. The same procedure was followed in my case," Murad told DW. 

Mallick, founder of Pakistani internet media channel Raftar, was also arrested for "generating and disseminating anti-state publications and videos, with the aim of spreading disinformation and inciting public violence."

Mallick's lawyer Abdul Moiz Jaferii told the AFP news agency that he was released on bail after offering 100,000 rupees for each of the two cases he was charged with.

Both journalists had reported on the alleged role of Pakistan's powerful military, which has ruled the country for much of its 77-year history. It is an institution that many mainstream media outlets carefully avoid criticising.

Among the accusations against Murad is sharing an investigation into a military general on Facebook.

The same week, two brothers of the exiled journalist Ahmad Noorani were "forcibly disappeared" from their home after he wrote about the growing influence of the powerful military chief's family, according to press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, also known by its French acronym RSF.

'Lack of consultation' condemned

Imaan Mazari, a lawyer and activist who recently represented several journalists and activists charged under the PECA laws, said "we have seen enforcement of the amendments of PECA primarily against journalists and dissidents."

"The state is not satisfied with its complete control over the mainstream media and so its desperate and short-sighted attempts to suppress social media continue," Mazari added.

The legal expert on cybercrime Osama Malik, termed the PECA laws "draconian."

"These laws are impinging on journalistic freedom. Journalists who fall foul of these laws have to deal with excessive litigation and also the cost of [obtaining bail] in different parts of the country," asserted Malik. 

Press freedom groups have expressed concern that the government did not consult them before enacting such strict laws.

"We wanted to discuss this law with the government but they did not take us on board," said Afzal Butt, president of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists.

The Pakistani government has claimed that the law is necessary to limit the spread of disinformation.

Azam Nazir Tarar, Pakistan's Law Minister, defended it as a "living document" and said that "everywhere in the world there are laws for sensationalism."

"There are certain limitations in the constitution of Pakistan regarding freedom of expression," he told DW, adding that "the parliament's role is to legislate, and it is the executive's duty to check the misuse of the laws."

Controlling the narrative?

"Certainly, this law is made to control the criticism of state narrative and you cannot even question the government acts and you will be silenced and if you speak you will be picked up by the police," said Sehrish Qureshi, a journalist and press freedom advocate who is the joint secretary of National Press Club in Islamabad.

Media workers have borne the brunt of what many have described as an increase in state censorship as more people turn to social media for news. 

Legal expert Malik, however, believes that the so-called "deep state" — a veiled reference to the country's powerful military — is partially controlling the narrative through the PECA laws.

"The deep state is finding it difficult to control journalists who use YouTube to disseminate their views," he said, underlining that this is particularly the case with YouTube creators operating from outside Pakistan.

"The state tries to harass their family members who remain ... in Pakistan," he added. 

"A controlled democracy is not a true democracy, and there can be no true democracy without freedom of information," said Malik. "This law will stifle journalism to the point where new journalists ... will no longer know what truly independent journalism actually is."

Malik suggested the law "could be the proverbial death knell for democracy, and it would take a long time for Pakistani constitutional democracy to recover from this blatant subversion."

Pakistan is ranked 158th out of 180 countries in RSF's press freedom index.

Edited by: Keith Walker