In Pakistan, court allows NCCIA to hold journalist Bilal Ghauri for three days
A judicial magistrate in Islamabad, Pakistan, granted the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) a three-day physical remand of journalist Bilal Ghauri in a case under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca).
Case registered over video blog
As Dawn reports, the case was registered on September 6 on behalf of the state through NCCIA technical assistant Muhammad Umair Warsi. It includes Section 20 of Peca on offences against the dignity of a natural person and Section 26-A on the dissemination of false information.
According to the first information report, Ghauri allegedly published and disseminated content on September 5 concerning the appointment of the head of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta). The document states that the material contained claims and allegations regarding the procedure and circumstances of the appointment of Nacta’s national coordinator.
According to the verification findings cited in the report, the journalist allegedly deliberately created, uploaded, transmitted and disseminated “false narratives” on social media. Investigators also consider the content false, misleading and lacking lawful, factual or independently verifiable grounds.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Defence position
On Monday, Ghauri was brought before Judge Malik Aman. The NCCIA requested 10 days of physical remand for the agency, but the court rejected the request and handed the journalist over to the agency for three days for further investigation.
Lawyer Imran Shafiq objected to the NCCIA’s request, saying that his client had been detained without prior notice. According to the defence lawyer, the video blog in question was uploaded on September 5, and Ghauri was detained that same evening. The lawyer maintained that the video contained no statement that could be described as false or fabricated.
Ghauri himself said that his remarks concerned not a specific person, but Nacta and the work of that institution. Shafiq also said that the journalist had merely presented the content of a statement issued by the relevant authorities and asked the NCCIA to specify exactly which statement in the video blog was false.
