Fact-check: Imran Khan’s claim about journalists arrested during his term is false

Recently, in an interview, former prime minister Imran Khan alleged that his over three-year tenure was “exemplary” in terms of freedom of the press, adding that only two journalists were “picked up” by state agencies.

The claim is false.

Claim

On February 5, Imran Khan, the former prime minister of Pakistan, spoke to the US-based weekly magazine, The New Yorker, and said: “My three and a half years are considered the most liberal in Pakistan’s history in terms of journalists, in terms of freedom of media and press. My three and a half years were exemplary.”

Khan then added that there were “only two incidents of journalists who were picked up” and “immediately we had them freed.”

Fact

The statement is factually incorrect.

Imran Khan alleges that only two journalists were “picked up” by state agencies during his three and a half years in office as prime minister. But the Freedom Network, an Islamabad-based independent media watchdog, has calculated 147 cases, between August 2018 and March 2022, where journalists in Pakistan faced threats, attacks and harassment in the capital city, Islamabad, alone.

Khan was removed from office through a vote of no confidence in April, 2022.

The most notable cases amongst these were the abduction of journalist Matiullah Jan, the attack on Asad Ali Toor and Absar Alam and the arrest of Mohsin Baig.

Separately, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, an international watchdog, named Imran Khan in the list of the world’s 37 worst rulers when it comes to press freedom, in its 2021 report.

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Cover image by Saiyna Bashir / NYT / Redux.