The excellent site run by Kim Andrew Elliott points to a story claiming to outline a deal cut between the BBC World Service and Pakistan‘s state censors, PEMRA.

The piece, by Abbas Zaidi, quotes two letters – apparently from BBC execs. Ironically, the one below was written less than a week after the BBC website carried a report, Pakistan judge blasts dictators:

[W]e are pleased to report that the BBC has now, we feel, met the conditions asked for by PEMRA to allow BBC provision of contents to FM partners in Pakistan:

• Prior clearance shall be obtained from PEMRA for all contents and programmes that are intended for broadcast on local FM radio stations
• BBC shall provide details of the mechanism whereby access to its programmes/contents will be provided to PEMRA prior to airing them, for consideration.

Zaidi writes:

These two BBC communications took place when the entire civil society of Pakistan was involved in a bloody struggle to restore democracy in Pakistan. People were being beaten, kidnapped, and murdered by General Musharraf’s government.

The BBC instead of supporting Pakistan’s civil society, made an alliance with Musharraf’s hatchet-men to censor their brutalities.

During 2006-7 hundreds of civilians and journalists disappeared or were killed in Pakistan, at the time when the BBC was bending over to please Pakistan’s dictatorship. So much for its claim to be an independent, objective broadcasting corporation!