Pakistan Imposes New Travel and Registration Rules for Foreign Media

The Government of Pakistan introduced the Foreign Media Facilitation Guidelines 2026, establishing restrictive standard operating procedures for foreign journalists operating within the country. Under these rules, media personnel must now obtain a no-objection certificate from the information ministry to travel for news coverage to any city outside of Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi.

Additional mandates require all entities facilitating foreign media and non-journalist service providers to register with the Ministry's External Publicity Wing. The government also reserved the right to suspend press registrations for actions deemed contrary to Pakistan's ideology, sovereignty, security, or public order. These measures follow foreign media reports regarding fatalities and protests in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and Amnesty International condemned the guidelines. Critics describe the measures as an attack on freedom of expression and a deliberate effort to shrink the space for independent journalism in the country.