Women reporters in Pakistan fell to 4 percent in 2025 from 16 percent in 2020, the Uks Research Centre said in a statement Wednesday.
The numbers show a reversal of progress across cycles, highlighting how editorial priorities continue to limit women’s visibility and voice.
GMMP 2025 was monitored on May 6, 2025, when Pakistan’s news focused on India-Pakistan tensions, limiting gender reporting.
No women reporters appeared in television, radio, or internet news on May 6, the statement said before GMMP and Pakistan’s report.
Regarding GBV, only one story appeared across all monitored media, focusing on intimate partner violence and portraying the woman solely as a victim.
The statement added that no human rights lens or legal framework was explicitly applied to that GBV story on the monitoring day.
Women made only 13pc of news subjects in 2025, down from 18pc in 2020; all stories including women as subjects were reported by men.
The numbers show reversing progress across cycles and demonstrate how editorial priorities continue limiting women’s visibility and voice.
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The statement further said that women’s representation did rise in social and legal news, noticeably increasing to 20pc from 14pc in 2020.
Globally, the statement said progress on gender equality in the news largely stalled across 94 countries, with figures barely shifting over the past decade.
The statement said women make up 26pc of people seen or cited in traditional news and 29pc in digital news, figures that have hardly moved.
Women’s visibility improved in political and economic stories but remained low in sports, where they constituted fifteen percent.
Women continue to be portrayed as victims at twice the rate of men, with 2025 showing a shift toward domestic violence as primary victim category.
Women remain underrepresented in expert roles, though digital news shows increases, and women journalists feature more women sources.
Globally, under two percent of news stories cover gender-based violence, and despite clearer perspectives, their volume remains low.
The 2025 findings show a slowing media environment where current approaches fail to deliver meaningful and sustained improvements in gender equality.
