October 10, 2026
By Areeba Bint-e-Saeed
LAHORE
With over 16 years in the field, Samaa News cameraman Khurram Fiaz was no stranger to dangerous assignments—yet nothing prepared him for the lingering psychological aftermath of what happened in 2022. While covering a political sit-in, he was picked up and tortured by police. Physical recovery took three months; the mental scars have never left.
“I was covering the PTI sit-in at D-Chowk in 2022, but on my return from the coverage, the police picked me up, and I was physically tortured,” Fiaz recalls. “I had been so badly tortured that when my mother came to visit me in hospital, she fainted after seeing the condition I was in. It took me three months to get back to leading a normal life, but that incident has left its marks on me. Now, when I try to focus on anything I am working on, I am unable to concentrate fully or give it my all. Even if I manage to, I become completely unaware of my surroundings. If someone calls me, I am unable to hear them. I only snap back to reality when they nudge me physically or pat my shoulder—even then it takes me time to understand and adjust to my surroundings.”
More alarming still, Fiaz’s ordeal is far from unique: Attacks on Pakistani journalists have escalated in frequency and severity, forcing media workers to operate in highly volatile environments with virtually no safety net.
When violence strikes, they are left to navigate the physical and psychological fallout entirely on their own—returning to newsrooms that offer zero trauma care or institutional support.
In Pakistan, press freedom is at a terrible low. According to the World Press Freedom Index (WPF), Pakistan ranks as the 153rd country out of a total 158 countries around the world. According to the data of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), between 2000 and 2006, there were 161 cases related to killing, detaining, hostage situations and disappearances of journalists. Journalists in Pakistan perform their duty without adequate training, protection and support which makes them vulnerable to dangerous and distressing situations.
Media watchdog Freedom Network (FN) in its report of incidents falling between November 2024 and September 2025 mentions Islamabad and Punjab as being the most dangerous places for journalists, each accounting for 28% of the total violations (142), followed closely by Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, Sindh, Balochistan, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). Government authorities were identified as the primary perpetrators in 71% of the cases, with miscellaneous actors, political parties, and unknown sources responsible for the remainder.
A mental health crisis
However beyond the physical injuries, repeated exposure to threats, violence, and traumatic events leave lasting psychological effects on journalists. When media professionals work in such dangerous environments, they often develop various mental health issues that continue long after the incident itself.
Many studies have shown that this is true. A report titled Trauma Exposure and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among Regional Journalists in Pakistan (Shah et al., published in 2020 shows that 48.6% of surveyed Pakistani regional journalists met the clinical diagnostic threshold for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Hundred percent of the participants had covered at least one trauma-inducing event while over 31% had experienced personal physical injury while on assignment.
In a research published in 2021/22. which was conducted with working reporters across local press clubs, it was discovered that over 63% displayed severe intrusive trauma symptoms—including flashbacks and focus disruption—while more than 50% suffered from emotional numbing and disassociation. Despite these alarming metrics, researchers noted that local media houses offer virtually no mental health debriefing or psychological safety nets.
Dr Asha Bedar is a clinical psychologist with over 25 years of experience who has worked with the Centre for Excellence in Journalism (CEJ) at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) on a project launched with DW Akademie to provide mental health counselling to journalists.
“Journalists who experience threats, intimidation or attacks, may develop acute stress reactions, hypervigilance, sleep disturbance, increased irritability, anger, difficulty concentration and avoidance of certain assignments,” she says. “Where threats continue over time, recovery becomes more difficult because the danger has not truly ended. Instead of recovering from a past event, journalists remain psychologically prepared for the next one.”
The psychological symptoms described by Dr Asha closely resemble the experiences shared by journalists who have survived repeated attacks while performing their professional duties.
Ali Abbas Shah, a reporter with 22 years of experience in crime reporting, recalls an incident he experienced.
“I highlighted the corruption of a Registry Clerk of the Revenue Department,” he says. “He began to threaten me, but he did not stop there – he threatened me with my children too. In fact at one point it got so much that he along with his brother tried to abduct me and also physically tortured me during that time. As a result I had some injuries near both my eyes and had to get stitches after which I have lost 50% of my vision.”
Shah says that in those days he had been working with a daily called Roznama Akhuwat, and he had received no support from his organization.
“I bore all the hospital expenses myself,” he said. “Even when I filed the FIR, they forced me to register it based on ‘unknown people’ and after the FIR was filed, I was forced by some fellow journalists to sign on a settlement agreement.”
Reflecting on its impact, Shah says, “Since I report mostly on crime and corruption cases I have been attacked many times. I work under a lot of stress and have serious sleeping issues. My children have tried to force me to leave the field of journalism, but I wont do this because I stand for the truth. Journalism is my passion.”
Attacks and threats do not just disturb the journalists’ own mental health. It also impacts their families who also end up suffering a lot. And when a journalist is murdered then the psychological pain of their family cannot be described in words.
In a 2022 report, it has been found that Pakistani journalists have been suffering from threats and mental health issues, including sleep deprivation, disturbing memories and nightmares due to their line of work.
Journalists, camerapersons and photographers in Pakistan are often found to be suffering from PTSD who experience higher levels of anxiety, stress or depression, which causes them to feel low on energy, experience low moods and evokes feelings of hopelessness.
In the same report it was published that over 50% of Pakistani journalists reported being stalked or physically targeted at least once in their career; One-third (33%) had personally known a close colleague who was murdered.
Does any mental health help exist for journalists?
While attacks clearly leave long-term psychological consequences, another important question arises: where can journalists seek professional mental health support after such experiences?
Despite the growing need, access to mental health counselling for journalists in Pakistan remains extremely limited. Dr Asha explained, “There are no regular counselling services that cater to journalists’ wellbeing.” She further said, “When CEJ was running their program the service was completely booked up and there were long waiting lists for journalists wishing to engage with the service. Even after the closure of project, many clients continued to seek out long term counselling.”
Although regular counselling services are scarce, a few organizations have attempted to address journalists’ mental wellbeing through temporary initiatives. CEJ and Media Matters for Democracy (MMfD) both conducted mental health counselling sessions for journalists.
Sadaf Khan, co-founder of MMfD, said, “We started Dastgir during Covid-19 because there was high stress environment at that time, they had to work on field and some journalists died too, so our session were related to their counselling to help them cope up during that period.” Similarly, CEJ launched its “Free Counselling Service for Journalists & Media Workers” in early 2018. Dr Asha explained, “The counselling was completely free of charge and journalists who came to the CEJ Wellbeing Centre presented with work related stress, exposure to traumatic events, unrealistic workloads, no break from the work and other related issues.”
Despite these initiatives, journalists believe that they fail to address the long-term needs of the profession because most of them are project-based and end once funding expires.
Freelance journalist Umar Bacha says, “All organizations who cover trainings for journalists have limited it to newsrooms, however the person who is really exposed to mental health issues is the correspondent who works in field and the training does not reaches them as the organizations mostly focus on big cities like Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. These are the biggest gaps of our media industry, and no one is focusing on it right now.”
Besides specialized organizations, journalists also rely on professional bodies for support.
The Lahore Press Club has conducted a few sessions related to mental health, but occasional workshops may not be sufficient for journalists who work under continuous pressure.
Muhammad Aqeel, Assistant Manager of the Lahore Press Club, says that it has been included in the Press Club’s written policy that if any of our members are attacked by a public or private institution, we extend our full support and raise our voice on their behalf. Whenever a journalist reports an attack, we first assess the circumstances of the incident, and if we determine that the journalist has been wronged, we actively pursue the matter and advocate for justice.” However there are no specifications about extending any psychological counselling to the victim.
Freedom Network Pakistan also offers some assistance regarding mental health even though their primary focus is on journalists’ safety through threat reporting, monitoring, and medical assistance that can also extend to mental health counselling when required.
“If a journalist reports attack, then we have a whole verification mechanism to get facts checked and we evaluate each aspect before providing any further assistance,” says Iqbal Khattak the Executive Director of Freedom Network,
The organization does not routinely assess journalists for psychological trauma following attacks, Khattak explained. “We do not ask questions about information concerning an individual’s health issues unless s/he shares voluntarily. We step in such cases only when the journalist is willing to disclose that s/he is having mental health issues. We are primarily dealing with physical and digital safety. However, medical assistance covers every aspect of medical needs.”
Legal Framework
Pakistan has a legal framework aimed at protecting media professionals. In 2021, the federal government enacted the Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Act, 2021, which formally recognizes the right of journalists to life, security, and protection from all forms of violence and intimidation.
The Act states that no public or private individual or institution may violate the life or safety of a journalist, and it obligates the government to ensure that counterterrorism and national security laws are not misused to arbitrarily arrest, detain, or harass media professionals while performing their duties. It further requires the government to take effective measures against forced disappearances, kidnappings, abductions, and other forms of coercion targeting journalists.
The law also provides for the establishment of an independent Commission for the Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals, comprising experienced media professionals, to investigate complaints and recommend action against individuals or institutions responsible for violating journalists’ rights. In addition, the Act specifically addresses abusive, violent, and intolerant behaviour by requiring the government to protect journalists from physical, psychological, and online abuse.
Journalists who become victims of such acts can file complaints before the Commission, which is required to investigate the matter and initiate appropriate legal action while ensuring the protection of the affected journalist. Although the Act provides an important legal foundation for safeguarding journalists, concerns remain regarding its effective implementation, timely enforcement, and the extent to which it delivers justice for media professionals who continue to face threats and violence in Pakistan.
A word from the police
Zafar Iqbal, the former IG of Punjab, says that the police generally hold journalists in ‘high regard’ as ‘vital members of society’, often according to them more respect and a more positive response than the average citizen. He explained that while the legal framework for journalists seeking justice is the same as for any other Pakistani citizen governed by the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Police tend to act more swiftly on their complaints to avoid negative media coverage.
Regarding the official stance on safety, Iqbal notes that while officers have no sympathy for those who threaten or attack journalists, they often become “cautious” or hesitant when influential figures are involved due to potential risks to their own careers and the broader pressure from the bureaucratic system.
Furthermore, he emphasizes that the police’s role is to verify complaints carefully before filing an FIR to avoid false accusations, maintaining that there is no inherent hostility between the police and the press, even though the system sometimes struggles to provide justice when dealing with high-level interests.
Mental health policies in news organizations
The limited availability of counselling services in news organizations across Pakistan, reflects a broader institutional gap where policies for mental health are yet to become part of the newsroom.
Pakistani media organizations generally have no formal policy addressing journalists’ mental health. Although some organizations provide health insurance, psychological counselling is rarely included.
“Hum News have much better health insurance policy as compared to other media organizations, but still it does not focus on mental health or psychological issues,” says Shafiq Sharif, a reporter at Hum News. “When a reporter is sent on field, there is no assistance from the newsroom for pre-risk assessment, and it is usually done by the reporter himself. But if any of our reporters are attacked by government departments, then full support is provided to that journalist by the organization.”
Despite this general trend, a few Pakistani media organizations have experimented with mental health initiatives in the past, although these efforts were not institutionalized or sustained over the long term.
SAMAA TV launched a project in which they invited a psychologist to their office to provide mental health counselling to their employees. Amir Jahangir, CEO of Mishal Pakistan and the former CEO of SAMAA TV at the time when this counselling was introduced, said, “We engaged with a psychologist between 2008-2010 to have mental health sessions with our employees. We fixed two days per week in which that psychologist used to visit the office. We initiated this programme because at that time terrorism was very high in the country and we noticed that our employees are quite stressful about it.”
While talking about the engagement of employees in those sessions, he said, “At first, our employees were concerned about confidentiality, but once they were assured about it, they engaged quite actively with the psychologist and during these sessions we felt a lot of improvement in the productivity of our employees”
The contrast becomes more evident when compared with international media organizations that have incorporated psychological wellbeing into their institutional policies.
Irfana Yasser, Senior Journalist at BBC World Service with nearly 20 years of experience, explains, “We have a whole team of psychologists and if any of our employee is facing any mental health issue can reach them at any time. We also have a lengthy form for pre-assessment of threat before sending any respondent on a dangerous assignment. Even after the risk assessment, if anything unexpected happens, the correspondent can contact the line manager, and he will be contacted by mental health professionals and medical experts if needed. Even if a journalist must report on some sensitive issues like rape, bomb blast, etc then our mental health professionals remain connected to that journalist and if his/her mental health is affected severely then we do not force that journalist to cover it and he/she can leave it if they want.”
The experiences shared by journalists, mental health experts, and media organizations point towards a significant gap in Pakistan’s media landscape.
While attacks on journalists continue to rise, institutional responses remain largely focused on physical safety, legal assistance, and emergency support, with psychological wellbeing receiving little sustained attention. Existing counselling initiatives have mostly been temporary and project-based, leaving journalists without long-term mental health support once those projects conclude. Similarly, many news organizations still lack structured pre-assignment risk assessments, trauma-informed newsroom practices, and dedicated mental health services for reporters working in high-risk environments.
As journalists continue reporting from political protests, conflict zones, crime scenes, and other dangerous situations, ensuring their safety should extend beyond physical protection. Developing permanent mental health policies, regular counselling services, and comprehensive safety protocols is essential if Pakistan’s media industry is to protect not only press freedom but also the wellbeing of the journalists who uphold it.