"Over the years, Pakistan's notorious blasphemy laws have been a central instrument for the persecution of religious minorities. While these laws are colonial in origin, they exist today within the context of a general Islamisation of laws, which combined with the state's inability to hold a monopol
...
y over violence have contributed to growing anarchy in the country. This paper traces the evolution of Pakistan's religious nationalism, presents debates around the blasphemy laws and their implementation, and considers the possibilities for reform." (Abstract)
more
"The No News Is Bad News (NNIBN) programme started in January 2016. The aim of the NNIBN Programme is to work towards the following vision: media and journalists, as independent players in civil society, constitute a diverse and professional media landscape and function as change catalysts. This is
...
done by working towards three interlinked Intermediate Outcomes: an enabling environment for the media is established, conducive to freedom of expression, pluralism, and diversity; media serve the interest of the public and act as a watchdog on their behalf; journalists and media-actors work professionally and are effective and sustainable [...] The outcome harvesting activities Free Press Unlimited has done with our partners in Pakistan have had four outputs or applications: an evaluation of the Pakistan country programme, which has resulted in this document; lessons learned for future outcome harvesting workshops, which have been used to draft a pilot evaluation report and a two-pager on outcome harvesting at Free Press Unlimited; input for the Mid-Term-Review of the No News is Bad News programme as a whole; recommendations on the priorities and strategies for the programme going forward, discussed together with Free Press Unlimited’s programme staff and our partners in Pakistan." (Page 3-4)
more
"South Asia is a region of enormous contrasts, but from the vastness of India to tiny and placid Bhutan, journalism faces several problems in common. The safety situation has improved in some of the countries that were racked by internal strife, but journalists remain at acute risk in India and Paki
...
stan. Nepal and Sri Lanka have perhaps improved their records since they came out of decades of internal conflict, the former through a negotiated truce and the latter by a military victory. But the legacy of years of conflict remains to be reckoned with, without which a full reconciliation seems unlikely. Public opinion within Bangladesh remains polarised by rival perceptions of history and disagreements over identifying friend and foe in the contemporary geopolitical landscape." (Overview, page 6)
more
"This study aims to explore the level of journalists’ safety and investigates different types of threats that affect their work (actions) within the context (environment) of Pakistan. Drawing on the new institutionalism theory, this study posits that Pakistani journalists work in an unsafe institu
...
tional environment where different safety threats affect their routine work and the overall quality of journalism in the country. Journalists’ feedback reveals that financial, physical, psychological, social and emotional threats affect their routine work and freedom of expression most. This study calls for broader investigation of threats to journalists’ safety beyond the direct physical, legal and psychological risks that are often taken into account by the international organizations monitoring violence against journalists." (Abstract)
more
"Governments around the world have dramatically increased their efforts to manipulate information on social media over the past year. The Chinese and Russian regimes pioneered the use of surreptitious methods to distort online discussions and suppress dissent more than a decade ago, but the practice
...
has since gone global. Such state-led interventions present a major threat to the notion of the internet as a liberating technology. Online content manipulation contributed to a seventh consecutive year of overall decline in internet freedom, along with a rise in disruptions to mobile internet service and increases in physical and technical attacks on human rights defenders and independent media. Nearly half of the 65 countries assessed in Freedom on the Net 2017 experienced declines during the coverage period, while just 13 made gains, most of them minor. Less than one-quarter of users reside in countries where the internet is designated Free, meaning there are no major obstacles to access, onerous restrictions on content, or serious violations of user rights in the form of unchecked surveillance or unjust repercussions for legitimate speech." (Page 1)
more
"The research documents how, despite immense ongoing challenges, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Nepal and Pakistan, some important advances have been made to develop joint structures and innovative approaches to defend the practice of journalism. It examines the long road Colombia has followed in the establi
...
shment of its protection programme, and looks at what organisations and bodies working on the ground in Indonesia and the Philippines struggle against, and what they have achieved using the resources available to them." (Back cover)
more
According to the executive summary "Facebook’s Free Basics program aims to help bridge the digital divide through a mobile-based platform that allows users to connect to a handful of online services free of charge [...] This paper highlights the following findings: Language: Free Basics does not m
...
eet the linguistic needs of target users [...] Content and usability: Free Basics features an imbalance of sites and services [...] Net neutrality: Free Basics violates net neutrality principles [...] Privacy: Facebook is accessing unique streams of user metadata from all user activities on Free Basics, not just the activities of users who are logged into Facebook." The Free Basics app was tested in six countries, with programs from five different operators: Colombia (Tigo), Ghana (Tigo), Kenya (Airtel), Mexico (Virgin Mobile), Pakistan (Telenor), and the Philippines (Globe).
more
"National and Regional Internet Governance Forums (NRIs) are the stars of the 2017 Global Information Society Watch. The story of NRIs began two years after the first global IGF held in 2006. In 2008, stakeholders from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda organised national forums and a subsequent Eas
...
t African IGF, to prepare for and discuss common concerns in anticipation of the global forum held later that year in Hyderabad. Soon after, many other national and regional initiatives emerged, impacting the global forum from the bottom up, enhancing inclusiveness and the broad engagement of multiple stakeholders. Today there is widespread agreement that national and regional forums constitute an important part of the IGF process, that their rise has added significance to the global forum and, at the same time, strengthened national and regional initiatives in their quest for inclusive, participatory decision making on their home turf. This GISWatch edition is the first comprehensive look at national and regional IGF initiatives from a critical, civil society perspective. In all, 54 reports are presented, including seven reports addressing cross-cutting themes, 40 covering national IGFs, and seven examining regional initiatives." (Preface)
more
"In this special edition of GISWatch, Unshackling Expression, APC brings together analysis on the criminalisation of online expression from six Asian states: Cambodia, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Thailand. While the report mostly focuses on criminalisation, curbs placed on expression usin
...
g laws, regulations and policies are also discussed in parts. These countries were chosen for closer study based on preliminary assessment. These six states have several socio-political characteristics that are similar and varied. They have largely similar legal systems, since India, Malaysia, Myanmar and Pakistan are former British colonies and follow the commonwealth system. These countries were also chosen keeping in mind sub-regional balance and to bring to the table a diverse experience with laws and violations. All these states, amongst many others, criminalise online expression for a variety of reasons, which they set out in their constitutions and legislations. In these country reports, the authors identify and analyse the reasons for which online expression is criminalised, from defamation to sedition, hate speech to blasphemy, national security to contempt of court." (Page 5)
more
"This article has addressed the level of journalists’ safety in Pakistan, revealing the diverse threats to journalists’ safety and their right to freedom of expression in the country. Freedom of expression is an individual right, for which no one should be attacked or killed. However, in this st
...
udy, journalists’ feedback reveals that not only their lives but their right to freedom of expression is at risk because of the prevailing unsafe environment in Pakistan. The study suggests journalism is a dangerous profession in Pakistan because of physical, psychological, financial, social, emotional and topic-specific risks, which constrain journalists’ right to freedom of expression and affect them most while doing their routine jobs. Despite the unsafe environment and constant threats, this study indicates that only 18% of surveyed journalists have received safety training to protect themselves in conflict and non-conflict situations. The following questions need to be addressed when analysing issues around journalists’ safety training in Pakistan, namely: who are the trainers? Are trainers themselves trained for journalists’ safety training, bearing in mind the local safety circumstances? What is the role of local and international NGO’s in promoting journalists’ safety education either at university or media organisational level? Further research on these aspects is crucial for the better training of journalists. This study reveals that the education of conflict reporting and peace journalism is not the major part of journalism curricula in Pakistan’s public and private sector universities. The curriculum in most of the universities do not reflect distinctively the local aspects of journalism teaching and approaches, which is important for enabling journalists to understand the context within which they perform their work. As highlighted by Abit and Kenneth in their article, the case of Kosovo is quite similar to Pakistan – where journalism education lacks local teaching approches. Therefore, in this article, I emphasize certain initiatives such as: the inclusion of journalists’ safety and peace journalism modules in curriculum; collaboration with international universities for innovative pedagogical models; regular curriculum revision and local-context teaching and research within this field. Others have underlined the need for a few more significant inititatives that I think are crucial as far as journalists’ safety education is concerned, such as: enhancing journalists’ awareness of their rights and physical and psychological safety; protection of their equipment, and legal protection while covering war or conflict." (Conclusion)
more
"This study investigates the challenges faced by local journalists caught between the global “war on terror” and its local consequences in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Threats and impunity are commonplace in this buffer zone bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, compell
...
ing scores of native journalists to flee with their immediate families to the relative peace of nearby Peshawar, where they continue to report on issues back home. In-depth interviews with local journalists reveal how threats and impunity work as structural constraints that affect reporting. Working under the logic of neoliberalism, media outlets extract what they can out of these reporters, but the risks are often considered journalists’ personal responsibility and add to their dependence on colleagues. This chapter offers valuable insight into the concerns of local journalists, and demonstrates how they resist the power holders in Pakistan and adapt to the complicated intersections of state, militant and foreign interests." (Abstract)
more
"This study aims to investigate the reporting of major conflicts in Pakistan by two leading TV channels i.e. Geo TV and Dunya TV, to ascertain the nature of the coverage in terms of being escalatory or deescalatory. It aims to explore these conflicts from a peace journalism perspective. The conflict
...
s include: the Taliban conflict, Balochistan conflict, sectarian conflict and ethno-political conflict in Karachi. The study is primarily a quantitative content analysis to explore the media coverage of conflicts during both high and low intensity periods from 2014 to 2015. The findings suggest that Pakistan news TV channels reported the Taliban and the ethno-political conflict in Karachi in an escalatory fashion, ridden in a de-contextualised pattern. While, on the other hand, the Balochistan and the sectarian conflict were mainly reported in de-escalatory terms owing to various socio-cultural reasons impacting the coverage. The findings are quite consistent with the existing literature on conflict journalism, which suggests that the media, in general, adopts a more propagandist and nationalistic stance, when the threats to national security are highest whereas it adopts a more humanistic stance, when the threats to national security are assumed to be low." (Abstract)
more
"To support joint efforts to protect journalism, there is a growing need for research-based knowledge. Acknowledging this need, the aim of this publication is to highlight and fuel journalist safety as a field of research, to encourage worldwide participation, as well as to inspire further dialogues
...
and new research initiatives. The contributions represent diverse perspectives on both empirical and theoretical research and offer many quantitatively and qualitatively informed insights. The articles demonstrate that a new important interdisciplinary research field is in fact emerging, and that the fundamental issue remains identical: Violence and threats against journalists constitute an attack on freedom of expression." (Back cover)
more
"The percentage of Pakistanis using the Internet increased by 37.5% between 2009 and 2013, though overall internet penetration remains very low with only 11% of the population having access to the Internet". (Page 9) "Heavy internet users in Pakistan are very young (72% under 30 years of age), large
...
ly male (59%), and highly educated (72% with at least some university schooling). Light users are much more likely to be over thirty years of age (42% for light compared to 18% for heavy users), women (47% for light vs. 36% for heavy users), but more highly educated (38% of light users have graduate degree vs. 31% for heavy users) [...] Television news is by far the most popular source of information among Pakistani Internet users, with 80% of survey respondents selecting this communication channel as one of their three top sources of information. After television news, social networking sites are the most commonly cited source of information used by Pakistani Internet users with 55% of respondents selecting it as one of their top three sources." (Executive summary)
more
"Internet freedom has declined for the sixth consecutive year, with more governments than ever before targeting social media and communication apps as a means of halting the rapid dissemination of information, particularly during antigovernment protests. Public-facing social media platforms like Fac
...
ebook and Twitter have been subject to growing censorship for several years, but in a new trend, governments increasingly target messaging and voice communication apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram. These services are able to spread information and connect users quickly and securely, making it more difficult for authorities to control the information landscape or conduct surveillance. The increased controls show the importance of social media and online communication for advancing political freedom and social justice. It is no coincidence that the tools at the center of the current crackdown have been widely used to hold governments accountable and facilitate uncensored conversations." (Page 1)
more
"This thesis is a theoretically framed and historically informed sociological analysis of how digital technology usage shapes religious identity in Pakistan. The development literature is dominated by assumptions of technologically driven progress towards secularisation and studies of technology pro
...
jects, yet there are few empirical studies of everyday ICT day use, and religion remains significant in Pakistan. To explain this, I draw on theoretical literature, the Pakistan religious identity literature and twelve months of fieldwork (2014-2015) to present an analysis of how Facebook shapes the enactment of religious identity by young people in three cities in the Punjab, Pakistan [...] My empirical findings show that the new technologies of social media, mobile phones and mobile internet interact with public discourse and everyday practice to shape religious identity. First, I show this by describing how Facebook’s construction as a blasphemous technology strengthens existing discourses of religious nationalism. Second, I show how Facebook’s technological discourses of singular authenticity shape the enactment of religious identity with implications for religious minorities. My final analysis theorises how the use of Facebook shapes religious identity through the emergence of what I call ‘digital secularisation’." (Abstract)
more
"This report details how Pakistan’s blasphemy laws violate human rights, both in their substance and their application – whether this is violations of human rights by the state, or abuses of the laws by non-state actors. The laws do not meet human rights standards and lack essential safeguards t
...
o minimise the risk of additional violations and abuses. It is difficult to establish precise information on the number of blasphemy cases as there is limited available data. However, data provided by human rights groups the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) shows a large increase of cases since the 1980s. For example, according to NCJP, a total of 633 Muslims, 494 Ahmadis, 187 Christians and 21 Hindus have been accused under various provisions on offences related to religion since 1987." (Executive summary, page 10)
more
"The study is focusing ‘Reporting is becoming a life threatening profession in Pakistan’ as a topic for research. International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) declared Pakistan as one of the most dangerous countries for Journalists. Amnesty International called Khuzdar ‘a graveyard for Journa
...
lists’. Rank of Pakistan in the World Press Freedom Index is going down year by year. However, the number of journalists who lost their lives in Pakistan is on the rise. It would be safe to say that at least 67 journalists lost their lives in Pakistan from 2002 to 2014. It is claimed by Committee to Protect Journalists that from 1992 to 2014 majority of journalists who lost their lives in the line of duty are reporters. The situation in Pakistan has been going worse with each passing day for journalists especially for reporters since 9/11. Government as well as media organizations have failed to provide proper security to reporters resulting an increase in the number of crimes against journalists as well as the impunity in their cases. Although the conviction in the cases of two murdered reporters is a ray of hope and has improved Pakistan’s rank in Global Impunity Index but still there is a lot needed to be done in order to control the increasing rate of crimes against journalists." (Abstract)
more