As Imran Khan defends media freedom in Pak, Maryam Nawaz's presser blacked out

Islamabad: In yet another instance manifesting the muzzling of media in Pakistan, PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz's press conference on Wednesday was blacked out by TV news channel in the country.

Senior Pakistani journalist Murtaza Solangi took to his official twitter handle, alleging that no TV channel was allowed to air the press conference.

The journalist attached the image of a notice displayed in a newsroom, which read that any image, video, or file of Nawaz Sharif would not be allowed to be aired.

"The pictures, footages, and files of [?]@MaryamNSharif[?] are not allowed to be aired, says the order in the newsrooms," the tweet read.

The instance comes against the backdrop of Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan on Tuesday refuting the allegations that the press freedom in his country was under attack during his government. Khan even went on to make the bizarre claim that media in Pakistan was freer than in Britain.

"To say there are curbs on Pakistan press is a joke," Imran Khan told reporters at the White House during a joint-press conference with US President Donald Trump.

A recent report by the Commission for Protection of Journalists (CPJ) stated that the situation of the press and media in Pakistan is now more than alarming and manifests itself in increasingly insidious and more difficult ways to fight.

Khan said that his government was not trying to censor the media but merely trying to bring it under control by strengthening media watchdogs in the country.
Earlier, an interview of Maryam Nawaz with a Pakistani news channel had went off air "forcefully" within a few minutes of broadcasting.