ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has laws written to protect journalists and commissions built to enforce them. What it does not have, a new report by the Islamabad-based media watchdog Freedom Network says, is protection that actually reaches journalists when they are threatened.
The report, “From Safety on Paper to Safety in Practice,” examined the two journalist protection commissions — one set up by the federal government and the other by Sindh — created under dedicated safety laws adopted in 2021 and 2022. It found both bodies weakened by limited authority, thin budgets and staff shortages, and complaint systems that most journalists do not know how to use.
Researchers Minahil Shahab and Adnan Rehmat, working with support from International Media Support, surveyed about 40 working journalists in Sindh, including reporters in rural districts. Seventy percent knew that Sindh has a journalist protection law. But 65 percent did not know where the commission’s office is, how to reach its website, or how to file a complaint. The same share — 65 percent — said they had faced professional threats or interference since 2021.
The people running the system concede the gaps. Kamal Uddin Tipu, chairman of the federal protection commission, pointed researchers to staffing shortages, budget limits and administrative hurdles. On the Sindh side, representatives flagged delayed responses to complaints and outreach that barely extends beyond Karachi.
The report urges the governments to give the commissions real powers, proper funding and complaint channels journalists can actually use, so protection arrives in time to matter. Without that, it warns, the safety laws risk staying what their critics already call them: protection on paper.
The survey is small and covers one province, so its percentages describe those 40 journalists rather than the whole country. But its findings sit inside a darker national picture that Freedom Network itself has documented. Its Annual Impunity Report 2025 counted at least 142 violations against journalists and media workers between November 2024 and September 2025 — a rise of nearly 60 percent in a year — with Punjab and Islamabad the most dangerous places to work. In the current federal government’s first year, at least 36 formal legal cases were filed against 30 journalists under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act and the Pakistan Penal Code.
The commissions report lands days before November 2, the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists. Its core finding is simple: in Pakistan, journalists know the violence well. What they are missing is a working door to knock on when it comes for them.
