THE government’s move to impose restrictions on international media will not only alienate the foreign press, it will also hamper the state’s own efforts to improve Pakistan’s image abroad. To recall, the government recently mandated that anyone working for foreign media must now seek a no-objection certificate if they wish to report from anywhere apart from Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. These new rules, named in typically Orwellian fashion the ‘Foreign Media Facilitation Guidelines’, supposedly “provide an administrative mechanism” for verification, coordination and facilitating access to foreign publications, according to the........

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