In Pakistan, restrictions over the media and content is a big threat to freedom of expression and association, said US State Secretary Antony Blinken.
Talking about the freedom of expression, Blinken highlighted the “significant restrictions” on media outlets and civil society in Pakistan in an address to virtual roundtable.
Blinken also shed light over the “lack of accountability for attacks and disappearances against journalists” in his address.
The US secretary of state said,
“We’ve documented some of this in our Country Reports on Human Rights practices, and we see media outlets, journalists, their families in Pakistan often subject to threats, harassment at the hands of security forces, political parties, militants, other groups.”
Secretary Blinken said that the US regularly raises issues and concerns relating to press freedom with Pakistani authorities in conversations and in meetings.
“Our open and honest engagement with Pakistan enables us, I think, to have an ongoing, sustained dialogue on human rights issues more broadly, and more specifically when it comes to press freedom, the rule of law, religious freedom, even as we collaborate in a number of areas where we have very clear mutual interests,” Secretary Blinken said.
