Democracy is more palatable these days because the power it yields to the people can be reclaimed easier than ever through modern technology. Keep the wrong ideas contained through control of media channels, censorship, etc. and you can marginalize the true freedom their vote supposedly provides.

Sure its not perfect but its definitely not how it was in my childhood ( The Musharraf days )

Attack on Dawn and Geo were first of a kind after 5 years lull.

In last 5 years, Pakistan saw, well, nothing less than an explosion in privately owned press and TV channels.

Not last 5 years. That was mostly under an actual dictator Perviz Musharraff. That period was more democratic than after him which removed all power for local governments and probably more censorship/bans by PEMRA, our media regulatory agency.

I think people are too quick to judge other countries through their lens.

This is as true for some of us Pakistanis judging to the west through our cultural lens.

>This is as true for some of us Pakistanis judging to the west through our cultural lens.

Am I? Well, media curbs were then and now, but have you noticed a very apparent change in tone?

Yes, there were already quite a few private medias by late Musharaf, but back then news section was nearly the same all across them. Aside from the usual aha, aha, nod, nod, in news coverage of the junta, they just varied in kinds of entertainment content.

But once Mush was gone, it was only then for the first time in decades that news became somewhat resembling what they are supposed to be.