Pakistan: Muzzling Free Speech or Combating Fake News?

As Pakistan's controversial cybercrime law has been toughened to allow anyone to file a complaint, the country is under fire for increasing the prison term for those found guilty from three to five years.

By enacting an executive order or decree on Sunday, the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act was amended to make spreading fake news online or defaming a person or state institution an offense for which there is no bail.

“It was important to bring this ordinance to curb fake news. Spreading fake news will now become an unbailable offense with up to five years imprisonment,” said Farogh Naseem, federal minister of law and justice.

The move has been called an attempt by the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan to muzzle free speech by political opponents.

Defamation laws were first enacted in 2016 by the government of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and were harshly criticized then for attacking political opponents and dissent.

A spokesperson for the Pakistan Muslim League-N Party, led by Sharif, has criticized the government for enacting what she describes as "draconian and black" amendments to the law. She told reporters in Islamabad that the amendments grant sweeping powers to the federal authorities to detain anyone accused of spreading false news.

In a statement, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists called the government action "unwarranted and deplorable" and undermined media freedom.

As a result of this undemocratic act, dissenters and critics of the Pakistani government will be targeted, said the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent rights group.

According to Reema Omer, a South Asia legal adviser for the International Commission of Jurists, the amendments have made the existing law "more oppressive."

Omer tweeted, "This is taking place during a time of global movement against criminal defamation laws. These laws are thought to be incompatible with freedom of speech."

At a news conference on Sunday, Naseem defended the ordinance, acknowledging that the government strengthened the measure after misinformation spread from social media posts about an alleged rift between the first lady and Khan, as well as abusive language directed at the recently retired chief justice of Pakistan.

The law will end such news reports, he said.

*This article contains information sourced from VOA.