Don’t cover Imran Khan’s PTI: Pakistan’s media told to censor popular ex-PM

Several journalists say they have been asked to impose near-blanket ban on the political party’s coverage ahead of February 8 elections.

Islamabad, Pakistan – Journalist Amir Mehmood* was getting ready for work when his phone buzzed with a WhatsApp message.

As a member of the top management at a private news channel in Pakistan’s second-largest city, Lahore, Mehmood was used to getting non-stop calls and messages, even at odd hours.

But the name of the sender of that message on Tuesday morning caught his attention and he immediately picked up his phone. It was an official who belonged to the country’s powerful military, which has directly ruled over Pakistan for more than three decades of its 75-year existence as a constitutional republic and has controlled most levers of power, from behind the scenes, even when civilian governments have been in office.

“Basically, the person pointed out some of our election coverage and said we must not use the flags of PTI or mention their affiliation with candidates backed by the party. It instructed us to clearly identify the candidates only as ‘independent’ and not show which party they were related to,” Mehmood told Al Jazeera.

Mehmood is among multiple journalists working in newsrooms of different TV news channels and web outlets, who have told Al Jazeera of instructions they have received effectively imposing near-blanket censorship on coverage of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party ahead of the nation’s February 8 elections.

PTI, founded by former Prime Minister Imran Khan, is widely seen as possibly the country’s most popular political party. But Khan, a cricketing icon, has been imprisoned since August 2023 as he awaits trials over charges of corruption and leaking of