Around 600 Pakistani journalists and media practitioners gathered in Islamabad on 30 July to formally reject the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) amendment 2025, declaring it incompatible with the freedom of speech guaranteed under Pakistan's constitution. The protest, convened under the joint banner of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists, represents one of the largest unified stands by the country's press community against the legislation.

What the Convention Resolved

Delegates at the convention called for a full legislative review of the PECA amendment, arguing the law has been weaponised against reporters and commentators rather than deployed as a genuine cybersecurity measure. According to reports, the gathering produced a rare display of solidarity across rival media factions. Journalists at the event described deteriorating working conditions — collapsing pay, rising intimidation, and the systematic erosion of professional reputations built over years.

The declaration issued by participants framed the crisis not as a narrow professional grievance but as a broader assault on civil liberties in Pakistan.

Scale of the Crackdown: Key Data

The Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) documented at least 233 incidents involving journalists between January 2025 and April 2026. The breakdown is stark: 67 assaults, 67 criminal complaints, 11 arrests, 11 detentions, and 3 abductions. Of those criminal complaints, 34 directly invoked PECA. Notices and summonses from the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) have become a recurring pattern, reportedly issued most often after coverage that authorities found inconvenient.

Rights groups and media freedom assessors cited in the reporting characterise PECA as having shifted from a contested cybercrime statute into what they describe as a central instrument in the state's pressure campaign against the press.

Gendered Abuse and Digital Intimidation

The PPF report highlighted a particularly troubling dimension of the crackdown: targeted digital abuse against women journalists. In one documented case, journalist Benazir Shah reported that an AI-generated video of her had been circulated online through an account followed by the federal information minister. The report described such tactics as deeply personal, gendered, and designed less to challenge a story than to destroy a journalist's reputation.

This comes amid a broader pattern of intimidation that extends beyond courtrooms — spanning physical assaults, detentions, legal complaints, and coordinated digital harassment campaigns.

Economic Pressure on the Press

Coercion has not been limited to legal tools. According to the PPF report, the government withheld official advertisements from Dawn, one of Pakistan's leading English-language newspapers, in what the foundation characterised as a deliberate attempt to financially squeeze an independent outlet. The move underscores how economic levers are being used alongside legal ones to discipline coverage.

What Comes Next

Journalist unions have demanded a legislative review of the PECA amendment, though no formal government response had been issued at the time of reporting. Press freedom organisations are expected to escalate international advocacy in the coming weeks. The trajectory of PECA enforcement — and whether Islamabad responds to domestic and global pressure — will determine whether Pakistan's already strained press environment stabilises or deteriorates further.