About two weeks ago, four very similar FIRs were registered in Pakistan against journalists and activists by unrelated citizens, all complaining about “negative propaganda against [the country’s] state institutions” on their social media accounts.
Very similar sections of the law have been cited by the supposedly unrelated complainants, mostly to do with defamation in the Pakistan Penal Code and the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, as well as wrongfully citing the draconian Section 37 of the Act which deals with “unlawful online content” and is meant for takedown requests to internet companies, not file charges against an individual citizen. How such dubious complaints with unrelated sections of the law were entertained is anybody’s guess.
Of late, news has been circulating on social media about another “list” – reportedly 49 names of activists and…