Pakistan TV channels trying to report the incident in which shoes were thrown at the country's president, Asif Ali Zardari, in Birmingham at the weekend were censored.
GEO TV and ARY News had just aired the story on Sunday when their broadcasts were blocked, sparking widespread protests on either side of the issue.
When some cable operators refused to obey the ban, gunmen fired at their staff and offices. The offices of two cable operators in Karachi were set ablaze by pro-Zardari activists when operators refused to shut down transmissions of feeds from GEO TV and ARY News.
Newspapers that carried the story, such as Jang and The News were burned.
The broadcasting bans affected news coverage and information about the relief efforts in response to the floods disaster.
Meanwhile, violence against journalists has escalated in recent weeks. In an unrelated incident, GEO News reporter Anwar Kamal and his driver were shot by assailants who opened fire on their vehicle in Hyderabad, Sindh province on 24 July.
Two days later, attackers threw grenades and opened fire on a home in the Bajaur tribal region linked to television correspondent Zafarullah Bonari, who works for ARY One World Television and Al-Jazeera. Bonari was not in the house, having moved to Peshawar because he felt he was in danger.
And on 22 July, Sarfraz Wistro, reporter for the Daily Ibrat, was beaten unconscious by five men near his home in Hyderabad.
These incidents make a nonsense of yesterday's press conference claim by the country's minister for information and broadcasting, Qamar Zaman Kaira, that the present government believes in free media.
He said that reports about the blocking of transmissions were unfounded. "The government does not believe in imposing a curb on the media," he added.
