The Islamabad High Court has struck down the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (Amendment) Ordinance as unconstitutional, and has tasked the government to report back on the abuse of law. A large number of press bodies, including the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE), the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), the Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA), the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), the and the Association of Electronic Media Editors and News Directors (AEMEND) had petitioned the IHC against the Ordinance, promulgated by the President in February. While the government claimed it had promulgated the Ordinance so as to prevent fake news, the press organizations saw the Ordinance as yet another attempt to impose controls over the press.
The law has been struck down, but even if it had remained, it would not have served the purpose of bringing the press under control, because harsh punishments fail to deter, as offenders feel they will be able to get away with their crime. Existing laws can do the job, provide they are implemented. That involves funding and capacity building of the justice system, which would actually solve problems in wide areas of social life.
The ruling has come just as the PTI has lost before the Supreme Court, and now faces the fall of its government. Still, that should not mean that the problem is swept under the carpet, and is assumed to disappear. While it may be too much to assume that a successor government will accord the matter priority on the legislative agenda ahead of election law changes or budget passage, the subject must be given due attention by the government yielded up by fresh elections, whenever they are held. Then, a law against fake news should indeed be passed, starting with arriving at a definition of fake news, which not only involves all the stakeholders in the print and electronic media, but which is implementable and directed at the abuse. It must not be a machinegun ready to be sprayed at all and sundry at the whim of powerful individuals.
