People seem to love actor Hamza Abbasi, of sappy sitcom fame. The young actor is perhaps the only star of his generation to have amassed the number of awards and accolades he has in the last few years. He gave up a career in the police services to pursue acting. Having starred in Army-sponsored films, he pledges support to the men in uniform every chance he gets. He is a true 'patriot' in the eyes of a burgeoning middle-class that follows his political and social commentary religiously on Facebook and Twitter; Hamza Abbasi's tweets get quoted, his Facebook status makes news.
But on 31 August 2016, he received a notice from the Punjab government about a status update he had posted to be seen, liked or shared by his more than the 3,679,000 fans who follow his page on Facebook. The ominous letter, signed off by Additional Secretary Prosecution Mahmood Hassan, accused Abbasi of fear-mongering and creating a situation that could trigger panic among people. The notice demanded a retraction and an apology from the actor and warned that his 'crime' could be tried under the cyber-terrorism section of the new Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA).
In his Facebook status Abbasi had inadvertently inflated the number of children kidnapped or reported missing over the past few months while the authorities claimed that most of them had been found and returned to their families. In a follow-up status Abbasi revealed his sources – most of them news articles – which, he claimed, had led him to quote the particular figure. His social media position on the issue was one of thousands of social media posts, blogs, news stories, features and tweets obsessed about the reported increase in child abductions in Punjab. The Sunday Magazine of Dawn, the English daily, had run an article on how to keep children safe amid abduction rumours, not to mention several parents who had expressed concerns over the safety of school-going children.
FACT AND FICTION
Articles on Freedom of ExpressionThis article is from our final issue 'Fact and Fiction'. The quarterly issue has articles on freedom of expression and collection of fiction from the Southasia. Other articles on freedom of expression include: