Digital Media Regulations and Freedom of Expression: Evolving Challenges of Censorship, Surveillance and Privacy in the Networked

Abstract

This growth of digital media since 2000 has radically restructured communication, political engagement, and mass discourse in Pakistan, creating space to express and at the same time raising the intensity of regulation. PECA 2016 is the primary act of legislation related to electronic communication in Pakistan, which was passed to resolve the problem of cybercrime, online harassment, and the issue of national security. Nevertheless, its application has elicited a long-term constitutional, institutional and academic controversy on censorship, surveillance, privacy and freedom of the press. Based on the Network Society Theory (Castells, 2000), this paper explores the restructuring of communicative power in the networked public sphere in Pakistan through PECA and mediating the restructuring by constitutional litigation. The paper is developed through a qualitative case study design that relies on the analysis of documents, judicial decisions, policy texts and academic literature to identify the trends of enforcement, content regulation, investigative authority, and judicial contestation in the period between 2016 and 2025. Meanwhile, the constant checks on executive authority have been created through the appearance of constitutional courts who appeal to the principles of proportionality, legality and due process to re-balance the checks and balances. The paper places the Pakistani experience in the context of wider international political discussions on the issue of digital governance and points out to the current tensions between the need to maintain cybersecurity and the democratic right to freedom of expression in the networked societies.