Press Release
ISLAMABAD, 28 December 2025: Journalists face pressure, intimidation, and violence from multiple sides: separatist/militant groups, security and intelligence agencies, political and tribal elites, and mobs in Balochistan province, a new Freedom Network research report has revealed the province is no longer experiencing a free press any longer.
Titled “Journalism in Balochistan: State of Media Freedoms, Access to Information and Safety of Journalists and Media Professionals in Balochistan > Way Forward,” the report examined state of media, threat actors to free speech, service structure, gender in journalism, legal cases and legal challenge to journalism, censorship, harassment, intimidaton and dismissals from services.
It is part of series of regional reports Freedom Network has produced to highlight state of media freedoms in peripheries across Pakistan. Before this report, the Islamabad-based media watchdog releases reports on Merged Tribal Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, South Punjab, Central and Northern Punjab Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
“Journalism is lost in Balochistan province where enforced and self-censorship prevail the most to stay safe and avoid any mishap. The findings of this report, I hope will, seek attention of all stakeholders to reverse the situation and get media practitioners and assistants safe to let citizens have access to credible information,” Freedom Network Executive Director Iqbal Khattak said in a press release while releasing the report on Sunday – 28 December 2025.
The report traces how security, governance, economics, and demography shaped the media ecosystem and journalists’ safety in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by area.
It finds a chronically constrained information environment in which local media are financially brittle, structurally peripheral to “national mainstream” agendas, digitally disadvantaged, and exposed to overlapping coercive pressures from state and non-state actors.
“The cumulative effect is systematic under-coverage of public-interest issues, heightened self-censorship, and a steady erosion of citizens’ right to know,” the report findings said.
Pakistan’s electronic media expanded rapidly after 2002 under PEMRA, but Balochistan’s “regional” media footprint remained thin, the report pointed out. “National television channels and newspapers keep shrinking bureau presence in Quetta as digital distribution becomes the default; outside the capital, coverage is sparse to nonexistent.
“The province lacks a terrestrial current affairs TV channel. State outlets (PTV and Radio Pakistan/PBC) operate mainly from urban centers; their multilingual mandate complicates content and reach, and transmission into remote areas remains limited.”
On the private side, Vsh News (Balochi-language, Karachi-based) positioned itself as a 24/7 satellite channel for Baloch audiences with national and diasporic reach, according to the report findings, adding that FM radio “exists but is constrained by PEMRA’s “35–40-km coverage caps — unworkable in a province defined by vast distances and difficult terrain. Print is concentrated in Quetta and hampered by cost, distance, and low literacy in rural areas.
“Of the 120-plus periodicals on the provincial DGPR list, only about a dozen dailies have real readership; many outlets function as “dummies” to capture government advertising rather than serve audiences. Balochi and Pashto titles are few; Urdu dominates (e.g., Azadi, Intikhab, Balochistan Express, Qudrat), alongside a small English presence.”
The report noted: “With ad budgets digitizing and public-sector tenders moving online (BPPRA), legacy publishers see revenue evaporate. A nascent Digital Publishers Association of legacy titles (Azadi, Balochistan Express, Intikhab, Qudrat) plus Quetta Voice seeks to pivot to monetizable digital operations, but staff and budgets have already been halved in two years.”
Digital divide and shutdowns
Pakistan counted 116 million internet users at the start of 2025 (45.7% penetration), but Balochistan lags badly at 15% penetration, with 60% of the province lacking fiber connectivity, the report lamented. “Prolonged, localized shutdowns — sometimes weeks or months (e.g., Panjgur since May 2025; post-attack blackouts in Khuzdar) — compound isolation, impede reporting, and create two starkly different digital realities within one country. Social media has, paradoxically, become essential for newsgathering and distribution while exposing journalists and citizen reporters to surveillance, takedown demands, and retaliation.”
Threat actors and safety
Journalists face pressure, intimidation, and violence from multiple sides: separatist/militant groups, security and intelligence agencies, political and tribal elites, and mobs. Over two decades, “40 journalists have been killed in Balochistan; roughly 30 were target-killed, the rest collateral to bombings/attacks. Khuzdar has been cited among the most dangerous districts for journalism,” “Journalism in Balochistan” report revealed. “Journalists are frequently coerced to carry militant claims or assist security services in tracing callers; refusal or cooperation can each trigger threats. Compensation exists for terror victims (e.g., PKR 4 million), but impunity persists — no convictions in journalist murders, despite repeated assurances.”
Gender in Media
Women journalists remained very few, largely confined to Quetta, and face layered constraints —mobility, hostile field conditions, newsroom sexism, pay gaps, lack of basic facilities (transport, washrooms, childcare), and harassment, according to the report. “Editors often bar women from district assignments for ‘safety,’ reinforcing stereotypes while still expecting output without support. Women frequently work off-camera or have male colleagues voice their packages.”
