The saga continues, the battle between the bureaucracy and the electronic media has now come to an interesting juncture. PEMRA (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) has issued guidelines to all TV channels curtailing their freedom to cover LIVE events hence forcing them to seek prior clearance from PEMRA.
The trojan horse has been camouflaged under the pretext of following the existing regulations of western countries where all LIVE events are carefully screened by their respective authorities before the electronic media is permitted to telecast the event to its users.
The Minister of Information, Mr. Durrani, who has also recently absorbed the PEMRA body under his own ministry, has said during a press conference today that they also plan to monitor the usage of derogatory language against the Army, Government Institutions and [by the way] offensive language against the Judiciary will also not be tolerated. He went on to hail the service of the Army for its war-time and peace-time efforts for Pakistan [lets not forget the political efforts] and such heroes should not be degraded in front of live TV. [that’s a mouthful of shit – sue me]
It must be remembered that since March 9th, despite Musharraf’s desperate efforts to cajole the electronic media into his own corner, he continues to fail miserably. Quite simply he fails to understand the fact that the public is no longer [googo-gaaga] rallying in his support and the media channels are simply portraying the voices of all Pakistanis. Its easy to hire a rent-a-crowd to accord Musharraf a thunderous reception in Islamabad on 12th May to celebrate the killing of 36 people in Karachi, but a different story to cajole hundreds of voices speaking against him all at once being tele-casted live throughout the country.
The breaking news found on Jang Urdu
I suspect, it won’t take long for the PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) to follow suit and clamp down on the free flow on information on the internet as well.
Until then, we bloggers are more then ready to step up to the plate and take them on
Comments
9 responses to “PEMRA Clamps Down on TV Channels”
Stands to reason – Mush is getting directives and inspiration straight from Washington. All we need is a Pakistani version of Fox news to regurgitate assinine PR pro government bullshit and we are all set!
Bloody disgrace!
A very disgraceful ploy to control the media… And I thought that finally, media was progressing in this country. Guess, they want us to go back to useless government propaganda machine, a.k.a PTV.
Shame on PEMRA.
Will someone move writ petitions in the four high courts against this?
Will TV stations ignore the order?
Will the government shut down private TV?
Keep watching or reading (now).
“Even the directions of the apex court of the country were totally ignored and such an environment was created that the entire nation was in a shock that what was happening in the country,” he said.
“Those societies turn into jungle where the supremacy of the rule of law is not observed.”
Who?
None other than the softly spoken liar of a minister Duranni jee.
PEMRA stops ARY TVs broadcast in Islamabad, Pindi
LAHORE: The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has “strictly directed the cable operators in Rawalpinid and Islamabad not to air ARY television, the channel quoted the cable operators association as saying on Thursday. The cable operators later stopped airing ARY televisions broadcast in the two cities. According to the channel, Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani said he was unaware of any such orders by PEMRA. daily times monitor
Just checked the feed in Karachi – both ARY One World and ARY Digital are running without problems in Karachi – keeping our fingers crossed – any idea what was the grave crime they did all of a sudden?
Western (US) live TV is subject from about 4-10 seconds broadcast delay, which allows editors to remove (mostly) profanity prior to airing content. The monitoring is done by the individual station itself, not the government.
The Federal Communications Commission monitors broadcasts after-the-fact by receiving complaints and taking them into account when renewing licenses for individual stations every few years.
Prior government restraint of speech is viewed with particular suspicion under the US Constitution due to the fact it stifles free speech wherever it is used. While prior restraint may be used in other Western countries, not so in the US.
PLEASE GET BACK GEO TV AND AAJ TV
THERE THE BEST CHANNELS THEY TELL THE TRUTH
BUT PTV ARE BOUNCH OF LIER AND ASHO—-
THSI COUNTRY IS RULED BY A MAN WITH A GUN
Ary have a link with Zardari, the Gold smuggling case. Hussain Lawai is working for Ary in London he is also a respondant in the case… It was in his interest to give better coverage to to the PPP.
Sherry Rehman is the best of freinds with Hameed Haroon, Dawn News… Part of the Red Room Club.
AAJ TV, connection to PPP is Zardari and some members of the owners family were in partnership .