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When last we checked in on all the foment and discord in Pakistan – contrary to what Stephen King might think, Public Eye keeps up with global affairs – we saw that the Pakistan government had imposed something of a media blackout. It’s been a troubling-yet-fascinating exercise in information control from the other side of the planet.

Then this morning, America got news that exiled former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had returned to the country:

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who returned home Sunday night after seven years in exile, filed his candidacy for parliament here Monday but said he might boycott elections in January if the military government does not lift emergency rule and restore deposed senior judges.

It’s clear that the nation-wide boycott of broadcast media didn’t settle things down. How, then, did the political conversation continue in the chaotic nation?

Pakistan went old school.

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In what is beginning to feel like a monthly ritual from some part of the world, we have another government-sanctioned media blackout, this time in Pakistan (again), where President General Pervez Musharraf has imposed emergency rule.

According to the AFP, Pakistan police raided the country’s biggest selling newspaper to make sure they didn’t put out a special edition on the crackdown:

Police on Monday raided a printing press belonging to Pakistan's biggest-selling newspaper group amid tough curbs on the media imposed under the state of emergency, officials said.

They stormed the Karachi premises of Awam, a sister publication of Jang group, following reports it was bringing out a special supplement on the emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf at the weekend, they said.

A government official in Karachi said that under emergency rules, the evening newspaper is not supposed to publish any special supplements, and police went to check that the restriction had not been violated.

This tactic is part of a wider campaign against the media in the country, as reported by the Washington Post:

Efforts to mount a nationwide campaign against Musharraf are likely to be hurt by the crackdown, particularly the continuing blackout of independent television stations, which had become a major catalyst for anti-Musharraf protests earlier in the year. "If you don't have television, you don't have crowds," news anchor Kashif Abbasi said.

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Another week, another story of Journalism in Peril abroad.

But where last week’s story was that of Venezuelan President and noted America-critic Hugo Chavez pulling the plug on TV stations, this morning’s Washington Post shows an ally of America taking umbrage at the Fourth Estate. In Pakistan, there is a significant uprising against President General Pervez Musharraf, and the results are beginning to resemble the sixties here in America – riots, rallies, and demonstrators getting shot by police … and, as the ultimate battleground, the media.

Since the beginning of March, Musharraf (you may remember him from sipping tea and being a genial guest on “The Daily Show”) has been combating criticism for his suspension of Pakistan’s Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudry. Chaudry was nearing decisions on some cases that were going to be crucial to Musharraf’s re-election bid, and those rulings were suspected to be critical.

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“Images of desperate victims have irked the government, already under fire for a slow response.” It reads like so many of the articles written about media coverage following Hurricane Katrina. But this line is the subhead of an article in today’s Christian Science Monitor, and the subject is not Katrina, but Pakistani television’s coverage of the aftermath of the country’s earthquake.

Pakistan's earthquake, while at once a story of national tragedy, is also the coming of age story of the country's fledgling private television channels. Their unflinching coverage of the disaster, beamed into millions of homes on a scale unseen in Pakistan's history, showcases an era of unparalleled media freedom and influence.

Only state-run television used to exist in Pakistan, until 1999, when the Musharraf administration distributed licenses to private television operators, part of an effort to “counteract Indian satellite television in Pakistan,” writes the Monitor. And the power and influence that the young Pakistani media is now enjoying bears much similarity to what some media-watchers viewed as a sort of re-birth of American media following coverage of Katrina. Much like coverage of the hurricane’s aftermath, the images broadcast by Pakistani media “are indelibly pressed into the national consciousness. …Their coverage, whether intended or not, has also pointed out the shortcomings of the government's response, particularly through clips that featured angry villagers lambasting the military.” It's an interesting look at how the media is evolving elsewhere in the world.

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I know we’re a little “60 Minutes” heavy here today but last night’s show was really that good. We’ve taken you behind the scenes of Ed Bradley’s piece on eco-terrorism here and here. But we would be performing a disservice not to highlight Bob Simon’s story on the ongoing efforts in the wake of the earthquake that ravaged Pakistan. Simon’s report focused on 13 medical workers from New York City who, acting totally on their own, treated the injured and sick and saved lives in the process.



If you missed the report, check it out here and listen to Simon discuss it and give his take on why the earthquake story hasn’t gotten more media coverage. CBS News and the rest of the media get plenty of criticism, much of it well-deserved. But sometimes they get it right and when that happens, it ought to be recognized. Simon’s report is a great example of how good TV news can really be.

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The press has taken some flack recently for its coverage (or lack thereof) of the Pakistan earthquake -- some of it from Public Eye. And weeks later, as the death toll continues to rise and many are still left without relief, criticism continues to mount.



So we were pleased to hear that the new president of CBS News, Sean McManus, expressed an interest in the story when he sat in on an editorial meeting the week before last. We were also pleased to see that last night’s “Evening News” had broached the topic, following up on the aftermath of the earthquake one month later with a piece by Mark Phillips, who followed a mule train through the mountains of Sat Bani as Pakistani relief workers attempted to reach those who are otherwise inaccessible.



You can watch the piece below:

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