New York, Sept. 10 -- Pakistani authorities have been urged to immediately release independent journalist Muhammad Bilal Ghauri and withdraw the cybercrime case against him over his online commentary concerning the appointment of a senior counterterrorism official.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) stated that Ghauri's detention represents a serious threat to press freedom and called on authorities to end the proceedings against him.

Ghauri, who reports and comments on current affairs through his widely followed YouTube channel, was reported missing by his family on September 6 after he disappeared from the ground-floor office at his residence in Islamabad. Authorities subsequently acknowledged that he had been taken into custo...