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Pakistan’s Media: Bringing Change at a Cost

This is what security looks like outside GEO TV, Pakistans largest TV channel
Photo by Emily Donahue, KUT News
This is what security looks like outside GEO TV, Pakistans largest TV channel

KUT News director Emily Donahue is traveling through Pakistan with nine other reporters on a trip organized by the International Center for Journalists.

Pakistan’s modern media outlets were launched in 2002 with the establishment of PEMRA (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority). Since then roughly 2,500 media licenses have been granted.

There are 85 TV channels. Twenty of them are news. The vast majority of programming is delivered by cable with no subscription fees. Everyone we’ve spoken to – from government ministers to ordinary citizens and journalists -- says the media is playing a crucial role in developing Pakistan’s democracy.  

But the news is not an easy profession here. More than 70 journalists have been killed  covering politics, the war, and the government. And hundreds more have received death threats, from security forces, terrorist groups, extremists and the Taliban.

You can see in the photo above what security looks like outside GEO TV, Pakistan's largest TV channel.

Emily Donahue is a former grants writer for KUT. She previously served as news director and helped launch KUT’s news department in 2001.
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