Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/pakistans-media-struggles-to-cope-with-emergency-rule Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Since Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule more than two weeks ago, Pakistan's media has been forced to cope with strict regulations and sporadic news blackouts. Margaret Warner reports from Pakistan on how the country's media is dealing with its new constraints. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. MARGARET WARNER: The newsroom is still humming with journalists working at Geo Television in Karachi, but most Pakistanis can no longer watch the fruit of their labors. Five years after the independent channel came on the air, thanks to a flowering of independent media introduced by President Pervez Musharraf, Geo was taken off the air by the very same president as part of his state of emergency. IMRAN ASLAM, President, Geo Television: We've been effectively blacked out in Pakistan, and news has become a contraband item. MARGARET WARNER: Imran Aslam is Geo's president. Until early this month, it was the country's number-one Urdu-language network, with four channels for news, sports, entertainment and young people.But on Saturday, November 3rd, just before the army moved onto the streets of Islamabad, Geo, and the country's other 60-some private channels, were suddenly blacked-out. Pakistanis were left with state-run PTV, which ran Musharraf's announcement imposing emergency rule without commentary as their only option for news. IMRAN ASLAM: There are moments in the lives of, you know, rulers when hubris sets in. And this media explosion that you see in Pakistan now was one of the achievements that General Musharraf used to talk about and very proudly point to as one of his great steps that he took. But it seems like, you know, he created in his mind a Frankenstein monster.