The recent presidential ordinance that amends the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 has been in the news for the past week, and for all the wrong reasons. Journalists’ bodies as well as bar councils have moved High Courts against the ordinance. Despite the very vocal resistance to the initiative, the prime minister defended the amendments in a recently televised speech.

This week, our Special Report explores at length the various aspects of the PECA Ordinance 2022 that threaten to silence the Press and free speech in the guise of attempts to curb, among other things, the spread of fake news. While fake news and mis- and disinformation are major global challenges in the digital age, the efforts to tackle these should not become a pretext to gag a populace and stifle dissent.

As one of our contributors notes this week, dictators seeking to restrict free expression conveniently claim that genuine journalists have nothing to fear. A cursory look at how gagging orders and blanket bans on free expression and fake news concerns are employed by authoritarian governments around the world to silence criticism is sufficient to make sense of the situation.

The impact of all such actions multiplies in magnitude when it comes to the functioning of a free Press. Holding those in power to account and criticism of the actions of public office holders should not be treated as offences in a democratic dispensation. The fundamental freedoms, as envisioned in the constitution, protect the people’s right to free expression. The nature of the amendments leaves little room for optimism about the intent behind the move.