PAKISTAN: Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto visits Geo TV and ARY TV after shutdown; journalists light candles to protest against media curbs

Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto visited the offices of Geo TV and ARY TV on Monday (November 19), after the country's two biggest television news channels were shut down. Geo TV, Pakistan's biggest television network, and ARY One World, ordered off air during emergency rule, said they had been forced to close down altogether after being ordered to halt transmissions via the United Arab Emirates, where they both have offices. Bhutto, after meeting the U.S. ambassador, toured the offices of Geo and ARY TV in the southern city of Karachi. "The Pakistan People's Party is against these curbs (on the media). We strongly denounce it. It is an attempt to suppress the voice of the media, an attempt to stifle the voice of the people. And this is against democratic values," Bhutto said. Later, in the evening, hundreds of Pakistani journalists, civil society representatives, political leaders and others lit candles outside the offices of Geo TV to protest against the government's media curbs. Chanting "Go Musharraf, go", they put their signatures on what they called a 'Wall of Protest'. One message read 'Geo I love you.' Local and international television channels disappeared from cable television in Pakistan amid media curbs imposed by military ruler President Pervez Musharraf on November 3 which banned reporting said to humiliate the presidency, military or government. Some channels have since resumed broadcasts, but Geo has refused to agree to a new government media code.

ITN Source | November 20, 2007

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