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Pakistan: Amicus Brief Challenging Criminal Defamation

  • By Raphael CLD
  • 20 March 2020

Pakistan: Amicus Brief Challenging Criminal Defamation

 

CLD and the Institute for Research, Advocacy and Development (IRADA) submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Islamabad High Court on behalf of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ). The case involves a constitutional challenge to Pakistan’s criminal defamation provisions, which provide for sanctions of up to two years’ imprisonment. The main argument is that criminal defamation laws are not justified as necessary restrictions on freedom of expression because civil defamation laws, which exert less of a chilling effect on speech, provide adequate protection for reputations. The full brief is available here.

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