A Fightback?

There's been some encouraging news on the clampdown-on-the-media front today. As some of you know, our government put in place some fairly draconian controls on the media at the beginning of the week. In effect, the laws signed by Musharraf would allow PEMRA to shut down any television station and confisacate their equipment at their whim. The next day, the new laws were challenged in the Supreme Court as well as the Lahore and Sindh High Courts. In addition, there were angry protests against the censorship of the media by civil rights activists and journalists which resulted in hundreds of arrests. So what happens today? In the face of protests, legal challenges and international condemnation, the government backed down and reversed the earlier decision. That's excellent news.