A request for bail to annul the order of the judicial magistrate for the journalist Farhan Malick was set for a hearing on April 7, his lawyer Abdul Moiz Jaferii said Thursday.
Jaferii told him Dawn.com That the Federal Research Agency (FIA) said that it did not receive notice for today’s hearing, so it has been rescheduled for Monday at 8:30 am
Malick, the founder of the Media Agency Raftar and a former news director in TV SamaaIt was arrested on March 20 in Karachi and reserved under the Law of Electronic Crimes (PECA), as well as the Pakistan Criminal Code in a case related to the alleged anti-state content in its YouTube channel.
On Saturday, a Karachi district court issued FIA notices related to a bail application for Malick. The suspect, through his lawyer, asked the Judge of the District and the sessions to EAST after a judicial magistrate had dismissed his statement of bail after the arrest. The applicant asked the court to revoke the order of the magistrate and release him on bail.
The case
According to a first information report (FIR) dated March 20, the FIA had received a report on the YouTube channel of Raftar TV, which was “involved in the execution of a campaign for the publication of antistatal videos aimed at the dignitaries mentioned in violation.”
Malick had been reserved under sections 16 (unauthorized use of identity information), 20 (crimes against the dignity of a natural person) and 26-A of the Law of Electronic Crime Prevention (PCA) 2016, as well as sections 500 (defamation punishment) and 109 (SUM) of the Pakistan Criminal Code (PPC).
In particular, section 26a is among the recently added provisions to PECA laws, in which false news is defined as any information on which a person “knows or has reasons to believe that they are false or false and probably cause or create a feeling of fear, panic or disorder or concern.”
Any person convicted of disseminating such information could be sentenced to up to three years in prison or fined to RS2 million, or both.
The criminalization of online disinformation has spread fear in Pakistan, with journalists among those concerned with the potential scope of the law.
