Pakistani media enjoys freedom or not? This question has been very difficult to answer because it went through many phases. It faced dictatorship, democracy and democracy-in-shape of dictatorship. Almost each setup tried its best to curtail media freedom either by using direct or indirect methods and now Pakistani media has become that child which gets mature earlier than his age due to coping so many friendly and adversarial circumstances.

Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf was a hope for entire nation so for media because PTI was the only political party which had been comparatively darling of media industry. In 2013, when PTI came into power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, it killed all the hopes of media freedom. PTI did not leave any stone unturned to sideline media in KP as government started ignoring instead of taking actions upon scandal-base stories, broke by journalists. PTI also adopted a new way by not giving time to media and stopped all the bureaucrats and government officials to appear on media. It is on record that Chief Minister Pervez Khattak misbehaved with Journalists so many times during media talk. When Journalists used to ask him any tough questions, he straightaway went on ‘Are you from ANP, PMLN or PPP’? PTI also started a completely new tradition to bully and intimidate journalists through its social media wing.

When PTI made its government in federal in 2018, media faced historical crisis due to harsh policies of Imran Khan towards media. PTI tried to control media through different institutions such as PEMRA and PID. Thousands of journalists and media workers had lost their jobs and the process has not stopped yet as PTI either stopped providing government ads or reducing down its price noticeably. So many famous Journalists have been sidelined in PTI’s tenure including Syed Talat Hussain, Matiullah Jan and Rauf Klasra etc.

During previous tenure of PML (N), it was believed that government is trying to curtail media freedom with the pretext of different national interests like Pak-Saudi relations and privacy but after experiencing PTI’s policies towards media, PML (N) was comparatively far better than PTI as PML (N) up to some extent honoured dissent voices.

Opposition is also criticizing PTI’s policies towards media as leader of PML (N) Ms. Hina Pervez said PTI has been using PEMRA as a tool against media and instead of being an independent body PEMRA has become mouthpiece of government. She further said that PTI’s government has strictly directed PEMRA to sensor any material against Imran Khan. She said PML (N) tried to uplift the standard of state run PTV but PTI made it nothing but a useless tool in current competitive market when dozens of news channels are producing variety. Ms. Hina Pervez also criticized PTI for introducing social media wing which bully not only Journalists but also opposition leaders. She deplored that PTI has been destroying the character of youngsters just to gain personal benefits by directing them to abuse parents of people who criticize PTI’s policies.

Senior Journalist Mr. Amir Ahmad Khan said that PTI and media relation is the worst ever seen before in any democratic setup. PTI government has been doing everything from intimidating journalists through direct or indirect coercion via phone calls and social media abuse to bring major media houses. He further added that during PTI’s current regime, PEMRA has become utterly useless and ineffective organization and its only job now is to make money through selling more and more TV and radio licenses.

Conclusion is that PTI has been trying its best to control mainstream media as well as social media despite the fact that both have a significant role in making PTI’s government. PTI has to realize the importance of media and the effects of advance technology on it. In this era, no one can hide anything from public because every single person has become informal Journalist having a complete news channel in their hands in shape of mobile phone.