Watchdogs call for scrapping foreign press curbs

KARACHI: As concern grows over recent restrictions imposed on foreign media outlets operating in the country, global human rights watchdogs have termed the fresh guidelines issued by the government “an attack on press freedom”.

Until the new government restrictions were first circulated widely over the weekend, only foreign citizens working as journalists were routinely subject to controls on movement outside Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.

Now, Pakistani journalists, fixers and others working for foreign media will need government permission to travel and report outside those three major cities and must register with the government – even for leisure travel.

The controls mark “an alarming step” in Pakistan’s “narrowing space for press freedom,” said Patricia Gossman of Human Rights Watch, calling for them to be “immediately reversed”.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International said on Friday that the restrictions on foreign news outlets, extending to local staff of these organisations, under the new Foreign Media Facilitation Guidelines, 2026 were “an attack on press freedom”.

“Why is the government afraid of truth?,” the statement questioned.

Earlier, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had called on authorities to withdraw what it termed “draconian new guidelines”.

“The Foreign Media Facilitation Guidelines open the door for Pakistani authorities to further restrict international media coverage, prevent journalists from reporting freely outside Pakistan’s three main cities, and risk exposing them to administrative retaliation,” CPJ Afghanistan and Pakistan Representative Waliullah Rahmani said in a statement.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and the country’s main journalist union, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, have already condemned the ‘Foreign Media Facilitation Guidelines 2026’.

According to CPJ, the five-page guidelines were introduced days after the government criticised international reporting on elections and protests in Azad Kashmir and accused Al Jazeera of engaging in “yellow journalism,” a term for sensational reporting.

Subsequently, foreign media representatives were ordered out of Azad Kashmir earlier this week.

The Financial Times, one of several outlets operating in Pakistan, told Reuters it “supports the ability of journalists to report freely and independently.”

A spokesperson for Reuters said, “Journalists should be free to report the news wherever they are.”

In a statement, the BBC also said it was “extremely concerned” about the new guidelines, and called on Pakistani authorities to reverse the “unnecessary restrictions”.

“Freedom of the press is increasingly under pressure around the world and this unwelcome change in approach is a step backwards for Pakistan’s media freedom,” a spokesperson for the broadcaster said in a statement.

According to New York Times, Pakistan ranks 153rd out of 180 countries in the Repo­rters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2026