Pakistan blocked access to Facebook today over the Everybody Draw Mohammed Day event on 20 May. A judge at Lahore’s High Court issued an interim order, which expires on 31 May when a detailed hearing will take place. It has been reported that some users are still able to sporadically access the site, whilst others are using proxy websites to circumvent the ban.
The body of 30-year-old journalist Ghulam Rasool Birhamani was found by police outside Dadu on 10 May. According to the president of the Dadu Press Club, the reporter for the Sindhu Hyderabad daily newspaper had been threatened by members of the Lashari tribe after as he reported on the marriage of an underage girl from the tribe. Birhamani suffered a fatal injury.
Film-maker Asad Qureshi and his fixer Colonel Iman were released last Thursday after being held captive by the Pakistani Taliban for over a month. Khalid Khwaja, the other member of their party was found dead on 30 April in North Waziristan. The two men were been handed over to the Haqqani network, an independent negotiations team who have close links with the Taliban. No ransom money has been paid.
Twenty-four different radio stations were prevented from broadcasting BBC Urdu bulletins on 27 April. According to the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) the 24 stations had neglected to seek permission to broadcast foreign content.