Pakistan’s media landscape is dominated by private media and widespread availability of the Internet and mobile technologies. Media in Pakistan function within the country’s complexity of class and societal structures, ethnic and linguistic divisions, national and transnational concerns, creative and commercial interests, cultural and historical backgrounds, and statist and market demands. This entry discusses the relationship of the government and media in Pakistan, then looks at the country’s film and television industries, print media, and music.

Britain ruled on the Indian subcontinent for about a century until 1947, when British India was divided along sectarian lines into the states of northern Muslim majority Pakistan and southern Hindu majority India. At that time, Pakistan also included the Eastern Bengal region, detached from the western part of Pakistan ...