Khyber Pakhtunkhwa enacts legislation punishing media who violate assembly coverage laws with jail time and penalties.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa legislative has enacted legislation that imposes financial penalties, jail time, and reporting limitations on journalists covering legislative activities.

The Speaker now has the power to prohibit any journalist from covering provincial assembly proceedings under the new law. Additionally, the Speaker has the authority to ban certain people for a predetermined amount of time.

The law also gives the Speaker the power to forbid any assembly proceedings from being published or televised. Anyone found to be in violation of these limits could be fined up to Rs. 1 million and imprisoned for up to six months.

The measure stipulates that media outlets or journalists who are found to have misreported or distorted assembly proceedings may be fined up to Rs 300,000 and imprisoned for up to three years.

Additionally, the law stipulates that accusations of prejudice against the Speaker or criticism of the Speaker’s actions might result in a fine of up to Rs1 million and up to six months in jail.

A three-month jail sentence and a fine of up to Rs 300,000 might also result from publishing or broadcasting a standing committee’s report before it is formally presented in the parliament.

In a similar vein, reporting on an adjournment motion prior to its formal submission could result in a fine of up to Rs. 100,000 and a month in jail.

The legislation was first authorized through a supplemental agenda in April, but the gazette notification wasn’t released for several months, according to the newspaper.