Pakistani journalist charged amid press freedom
Deutsche Welle :
A journalist known for criticizing Pakistan’s powerful army was charged with sharing disinformation online on Wednesday.
Muhammad Waheed Murad, a reporter for Saudi-owned Urdu News, was charged hours after his family had said that he was abducted from his home by intelligence officials in an early morning raid.
He is the second reporter in a matter of days to be accused under Pakistan’s toughened laws against content online.
Murad, who has been charged with “cyber terrorism” and disseminating “false and fake information,” has been remanded in custody for two days, AFP news agency reported.
He was arrested after more than a dozen masked men stormed his home in Islamabad early Wednesday morning, his wife and mother-in-law said.
“Around 20 unidentified individuals stormed the house around 2:00am, local time, and forcibly took him away, without presenting any (arrest) warrant,” his mother-in-law Abida Nawaz said in a video statement.
Before Murad appeared in court in the Pakistani capital, his lawyer had said the unidentified officials were “presumably from intelligence agencies.”
“The abductors, their modus operandi, and the way they stormed the house in the dead of night make it clear who they are,” Imaan Mazari told AFP.
Journalists’ union condemns Murad’s ‘enforced abduction’
The incident has triggered an outcry in the country, which has spent several decades under military rule since it was formed in 1947.
Islamabad has been accused by rights groups of “disappearing” critics of the government and the army.
Military authorities, who are widely believed to wield significant influence over Pakistan’s politics and economy, deny those allegations.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has urged authorities to investigate and locate the missing journalist.
The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists has condemned the “enforced abduction” of the journalist, saying it and other similar incidents “threaten the very fabric of democracy and press freedom.”
Murad’s detention is the latest in a series of similar incidents amid an intensifying crackdown on journalists in Pakistan.
On March 19, two brothers of Pakistani reporter Ahmad Noorani were allegedly kidnapped from their home after the exiled journalist had published a story investigating allegations of nepotism involving the family of Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir.
Also last week, another journalist Farhan Mallick was arrested in Karachi on charges of broadcasting “anti-state” content on his YouTube channel.
Islamabad has also been criticized by rights groups and watchdogs for limiting internet access, including imposing temporary bans on YouTube and TikTok. Access to X, formerly known as Twitter, is still blocked.
Pakistan is ranked 152 out of 180 countries by Reporters Without Borders, while the Committee to Protect Journalists placed it 12th on its Global Impunity Index, which ranks the frequency with which journalist killings are not punished.