Watch part two

Pakistan is a country that does not stay out of the headlines for long and provides both challenges and dangers for the media.

In just two years the country has been placed in a state of emergency, witnessed the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the late prime minister, and the resignation of Pervez Musharraf, the former president, and launched an ongoing war in the Swat Valley against the Taliban.

The Listening Post charts a short history of Pakistan's media - before and after the Musharraf era.

The diversification of Pakistan's print and broadcast media under Musharraf breathed life into dissident movements - on air and online. 

We present a user's guide to Pakistan, to help navigate the country's still evolving media scene.

Swat Valley

The media has largely been kept out of the Swat Valley [AFP]

Suppression of news reporting still occurrs in Pakistan but it is not just the government that has an impact on what goes to air.

Taliban forces operating in the Swat Valley have been shutting down the media, threatening reporters, and even closing movie theatres. 

The Listening Post reports on why such a huge media vacuum has been created in the region, and how one reporter paid the ultimate price for doing his job.

The Pakistani government took the decision to send in troops to re-establish its control of the area. In doing so, the Zardari government made sure it also kept the media under control - by keeping them out of the war zone.

Salah Khadr explores how the propaganda war between the government in Islamabad and the Taliban in Swat proved to be no contest.