Police baton-charged and arrested over 100 journalists protesting against curbs imposed on the media under the emergency rule in Pakistan's southern port city Karachi on Tuesday.

Journalists gathered outside the Karachi Press Club and shouted slogans against the ban on two independent news television channels.

The government shut down Geo and ARY channels when they refused to accept a code of conduct framed after President Pervez Musharraf [Images] proclaimed emergency on November 3.

The police baton charged the journalists and more than 100 were arrested when they refused to disperse, the media reports said.

Journalists across Pakistan today continued to protest against restrictions on the media and set up camps outsides press clubs in major cities, including the capital.

Journalists, members of civil society groups and political and human rights activists organised two demonstrations in Islamabad. They gathered in front of the Islamabad Press Club and the Press Information Department and demanded the removal of restrictions on the independent media.

Wearing black arm bands and carrying banners and placards, the journalists vowed to continue their struggle for freedom of expression.

In Lahore [Images], the Punjab Union of Journalists organised a protest rally. A large number of journalists from the print and electronic media joined the rally that started from Lahore Press Club and ended in front of the provincial assembly. A heavy contingent of police was deployed during the protest.

The participants held banners and placards inscribed with demands for freedom of the press and shouted slogans against the government and Musharraf.

PUJ president Arif Hameed Bhatti and senior journalists I A Rehman and Najam Sethi addressed the protestors. They demanded that the government should withdraw restrictions on the press and lift curbs on all private TV channels.

Reporters violating restrictions imposed under emergency regulations can be punished with stiff fines and prison terms of up to three years.