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Redlining the News in Pakistan

Iram Abbasi

   Umar Cheema experienced the latest brand of Pakistani media suppression
   firsthand.

   Cheema, a prominent investigative reporter, works for national
   newspaper The News and has 1.1 million Twitter followers.

   This year in July, after he posted some tweets critical of the Pakistan
   government and military, his managers received calls pressuring them to
   respond. In Pakistan, such calls typically originate with the military.
   Cheema was forced to take down his Twitter account for a week.

   Journalists in Pakistan have long been at the mercy of the country's
   powerful military and rulers. But Cheema and others say what's
   happening under Prime Minister Imran Khan might not be as brutal as the
   suppression of previous governments, but it's far more insidious and
   pervasive.

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