Pakistan blocks Al Jazeera English over 'selective' AJK coverage
Ministry accuses Al Jazeera of 'Yellow Journalism'
Pakistan's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said in a statement that Al Jazeera had reported from only a handful of selected polling stations in Muzaffarabad, using specific timings and prepared statements from certain individuals to present a one-sided account of the AJK election. The ministry described the coverage as poor-quality journalism and suggested it was part of an effort by outside forces to cast doubt on the fairness of the vote and the choices made by Kashmiri voters.
The ministry did not cite specific factual errors in Al Jazeera's reporting, and the network had not issued a public response to the criticism at the time of publication.
Site inaccessible, no formal confirmation
Users across Pakistan began reporting that Al Jazeera's website would not load on Sunday, with many sharing screenshots showing "connection reset" and similar error messages. Several local and regional news websites were reported to be affected in a similar way around the same time.
As of Sunday, Pakistani authorities had not issued any formal statement confirming that Al Jazeera's website had been deliberately blocked. However, the timing, arriving shortly after the ministry's public criticism, has led many observers to link the outage directly to the network's recent coverage of unrest and the electoral process in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
New restrictions for foreign media
Alongside the criticism of Al Jazeera, the Information Ministry has introduced new rules requiring foreign journalists and international media staff to obtain a No Objection Certificate before reporting from anywhere in Pakistan outside the three major cities of Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. The restriction adds a formal bureaucratic hurdle for international outlets seeking to report from Azad Jammu and Kashmir and other regions currently in the news.
The measures follow weeks of unrest in AJK, where protests, road closures and a prolonged internet shutdown have accompanied a phased legislative assembly election, with human rights groups reporting dozens of deaths during the crackdown that preceded the vote.
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This is not the first time Al Jazeera's access in Pakistan has come under scrutiny. Unverified reports of restrictions on the network surfaced in February following its coverage of Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan, though authorities denied any formal block at the time. Separately, an Islamabad court had earlier in the year sought to block several YouTube channels, including ones linked to jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and journalists critical of the government, after a cybercrime agency report accused them of posting provocative content against state institutions.
Press freedom advocates have raised concern over the growing pattern of restrictions on both domestic and international media coverage of politically sensitive events in Pakistan, while government officials maintain that such measures are necessary to counter what they describe as biased or externally influenced reporting.
