Women’s presence in Pakistan’s news media declined significantly in 2025, with women reporters accounting for only 4 per cent of the total, down from 16 per cent in 2020, according to the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) 2025 findings released by the Uks Research Centre. The data points to a reversal of earlier gains in gender representation in the country’s media landscape.

The GMMP, conducted once every five years, monitors news content from a single global monitoring day. In 2025, monitoring took place on May 6, when Pakistan’s news agenda was dominated by India-Pakistan military tensions. The focus on cross-border shelling, political statements, and military developments resulted in limited space for gender-related reporting, with no women reporters recorded in television, radio, or online news on that day.

The findings also showed a decline in women’s visibility as news subjects. Women made up 13 per cent of people featured in news stories in 2025, compared to 18 per cent in 2020. All stories that included women as subjects were reported by men. Coverage of gender-based violence was minimal, with only one story recorded, which focused on intimate partner violence and portrayed the woman solely as a victim.

An exception to the overall decline was seen in social and legal news, where women’s representation increased to 20 per cent from 14 per cent in 2020. Despite this rise, the overall data indicated that women’s participation in the news remains closely linked to editorial priorities and established news routines.

At the global level, the GMMP 2025 report found that progress on gender equality in the news has largely stalled across 94 countries. Women accounted for 26 per cent of people seen or cited in traditional news and 29 per cent in digital news, figures that have shown little change over the past decade, highlighting persistent underrepresentation of women in media worldwide.