Ed. note: Our research affiliate Huma Yusuf is in Karachi covering the political protests in Pakistan, and she is blogging about Pakistanis' uses of citizen journalism on The Dawn Blog, from which we'll quote as Huma posts more.

Pakistan, a developing nation with 17 million internet users in a population of over 150 million people, seems like an unlikely place for internet activism to thrive. But ongoing political turmoil (and a propensity for arbitrary arrests) has made this South Asian country one of the most politically active nations online.

Much can be said about Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf’s decision to declare a state of emergency in my home country. In this post, I will set aside political commentary and restrict my comments here to the role that news media and new media are playing in the national crisis.

On Saturday, November 3, soon after proclaiming emergency rule in a televised address, Musharraf demanded that all cable operators stop beaming the broadcasts of all local and foreign new channels, except those of the state-owned Pakistan Television. Nearly 30 channels were promptly taken off the air. On Sunday, policemen raided the Islamabad offices of Aaj TV, a private news channel, and attempted to confiscate the channel’s equipment.

This nationwide broadcasting blackout was accompanied by sporadic efforts to cut telephone lines and jam cell phone networks, even though the telecommunications infrastructure in Pakistan is privately owned. According to VOA News, the telephone lines of Pakistan’s main independent news channel Geo TV were cut.