THE Moderator of the Church of Pakistan, the Rt Revd Azad Marshall, has warned that a new law in Pakistani which makes the dissemination of “fake or false” information a criminal offence could be misused against Christians.

Human Rights Watch has warned that the Pakistan Electronic Crimes (Amendment) Act (2025), enacted last week, does not define “fake or false” news, but describes it as information that could cause “fear, panic, disorder or unrest”. It describes the law as “vague and overbroad in violation of basic rights”.

The amendments to the Electronic Crimes Act will create four new government bodies to regulate online content, including the Social Media Protection and Regulation Authority, authorised to order any social-media company to remove or block content deemed to be “against the ideology of Pakistan”. Human Rights Watch reports that dozens of journalists have been charged under the existing Act.

On Thursday of last week, the Christian Daily International news website in Pakistan quoted Bishop Marshall on the new law. “Our people are already struggling with false accusations of blasphemy because there’s no deterrent law against the accusers,” he said. “If this new law is also misused, it will lead to more victimisation of our people.”

There were already undeclared restrictions on mainstream media, preventing their reporting issues related to the persecution of minorities, because authorities feared that such reports would damage Pakistan’s reputation, he told the outlet.

“News like the violent attacks on Christians in Jaranwala, in August 2023 [News, 25 August 2023], make their way to the mainstream media because they are too big an incident to ignore or downplay,” he said. “With the mainstream media compromised, social media had become an effective tool for people to voice their opinion as well as report persecution incidents. We are concerned that the new law could be misused to discourage people from expressing their point of view.”