Daily Times

Let’s not just talk but bring the change ourselves. Pakistan has scored 30 points out of 100 on the Freedom of Expression Assessment Index by Media Matters for Democracy.

“We have been ranked in better titles before, but this is also very important,” said actor Sarwat Gilani while responding to the news. “How will we express when we don’t know how to do it?”

The report stated that there has been a decline in freedom of expression during the pandemic, with media persons facing threats due to absence of laws for their protection.

“As a society, we are not honest to ourselves, but quick to judge others,” Sarwat said. “We don’t know how to communicate with our children, spouses, parents, and among ourselves on social media.”

Sarwat’s own award-winning web series Churails was removed from ZEE5 Global for “vulgar” content in October 2020. It highlighted the hypocrisy of patriarchal societies that continue to oppress the weak. Child abuse, male dominance, and sexism were some of the topics shown in the series that starred Nimra Bucha, Mehar Bano, and Yasra Rizvi.

In a survey by Digital Rights Foundation, more than half of respondents belonging to religious minorities in Pakistan said that they have faced backlash online or threats on the basis of their religion and 34.5 percent confirmed that they feel uncomfortable expressing their religious identity online.