Journalist Farhan Mallick remains behind bars as bail plea in Peca case to be heard on April 7

A bail application to overturn the judicial magistrate’s order for journalist Farhan Mallick was fixed for hearing on April 7, his lawyer Abdul Moiz Jaferii said on Thursday.

Jaferii told media.com that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) claimed it did not receive notice for today’s hearing, so it has been rescheduled for Monday at 8:30am.

Mallick, the founder of media agency Raftar and a former news director at Samaa TV, was arrested on March 20 in Karachi and booked under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) as well as the Pakistan Penal Code in a case related to alleged anti-state content on his YouTube channel.

On Saturday, a Karachi district court issued notices to the FIA related to a bail application for Mallick. The suspect, through his lawyer, applied to the district and sessions judge east after a judicial magistrate had dismissed his post-arrest bail plea. The applicant asked the court to overturn the order of the magistrate and set him free on bail.

The case

According to a first information report (FIR) dated March 20, the FIA had received a report about Raftar TV’s YouTube channel, which was “involved in running a campaign for the posting of anti-state videos targeting the dignitaries mentioned in violation”.

Mallick had been booked under sections 16 (unauthorised use of identity information), 20 (offences against the dignity of a natural person) and 26-A of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) 2016, as well as sections 500 (punishment for defamation) and 109 (abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

Notably, Section 26A is among the provisions recently added to the Peca laws, wherein fake news is defined as any information about which a person “knows or has reason to believe to be false or fake and likely to cause or create a sense of fear, panic or disorder or unrest”.

Any person found guilty of spreading such information could be sentenced to up to three years in prison or fined up to Rs2 million, or both.

The criminalisation of online disinformation has spread fear in Pakistan, with journalists among those worried about the potentially wide reach of the law.