The shutting down of a US-funded Pashto-language radio station has raised concern over Pakistani authorities clamping down on free speech and Western media outlets in the country. Shah Meer Baloch reports. Flags of the US, RFE/RL and the Czech Republic waving in the wind in front of the RFE/RL headquarters in Prague (picture-alliance/dpa/M.Kamaryt) Pakistan’s Interior […]

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued contempt notices to the owner and four employees of Waqt TV on Wednesday after taking exception to a programme aired this week. Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui issued the notices to Rameeza Majeed Nizami, the owner of Nawa-i-Waqt Group, anchorperson Matiullah Jan, bureau chief Sardar Hameed and producers Mohammad […]

A well-known Pakistani TV anchor facing renewed accusations of hate speech is fighting a court order that temporarily bans him from appearing in print, on television or on social media platforms. Legal experts and rights activists are monitoring the case, which has raised the issue of free speech. In December, an Islamabad court imposed the […]

The banned militant group Baloch Liberation Front ended the boycott of media in Balochistan which it had announced in October 2017. The buycott led to severe restrictions in distribution of newspapers in most parts of the province, closure of several press clubs and attacks on press clubs and newspaper distribution offices. Talking to Pakistan Press […]

PRAGUE: With its Pakistan bureau shut by the authorities last week, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Pashto-language station is broadcasting from its headquarters in a distant Prague, waiting for “the dust to settle”, according to its senior editor. The Islamabad office of Radio Mashaal, or Torch in Pashto, with a target audience of some 10 million […]

Journalists and members of the civil society attended a demonstration organised by the Young Journalists of Pakistan (YJP) outside the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday evening to protest against the alleged harassment and detention of a journalist, Fawad Hasan. Hasan, who is associated with Express Tribune, was allegedly picked up by security officials from the […]

The Express Tribune’s Fawad Hasan was allegedly detained by security officials at the University of Karachi on Monday and then released after an hour. Fawad was at a condolence reference organised by the Karachi University Teachers Society in memory of the varsity’s former associate professor Dr Hasan Zafar Arif at the institution’s Department of International […]