Re: the other shoe falls
Well, true, I was just joking. I actually wrote that so that people realise that if media is/was free in Pakistan, it was government policy. That is the reason, I believe that media should also try to be careful that they do not lie or show one sided picture. In west they cannot as media law is very strong, but it seems that Pakistan media law is very lax. I believe that if unfortunately government changes policy of media freedom, it would be sad day. [Though I am sure that once present government of Musharraf would go and politicians would come, media independence would go too, as no politician in third world country, especially corrupt politicians, can afford media freedom].
It is government that gives permission to any media, to show their program to the people living in the country. Hence, one can say that if there is freedom of media, credit goes to the government. No media can force their independence in any country, especially electronic media (as written media, like newspaper can keep publishing and distributing, even if government do not want them to do so, as they can go underground).
It really makes me laugh when people think and say that electronic media got their independence because government cannot control the media. Today someone on ARY was saying that if government stops cable transmission, people would start buying dish antenna and would start receiving channels directly. He was assuming that if that would happen, government would not be able to control the transmission (I have even seen some known journalists talking similarly). It seems that these people do not know anything about electronic transmission.
Government can warn the transmitting station not to transmit their programs to the country and if they do, government can fine them, rather can even arrest their employees. But that is not the only ways.
If government do not want to enforce their will directly by telling a channel not to transmit in their country, they can still jam any channel they do not want to be shown in the country. Procedure is very simple and government can do that easily.