ISLAMABAD: Minister of Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has said that government will establish a new media regulatory authority by abolishing the existing Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA).
While addressing the Senate’s Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting in Islamabad on Thursday, Fawad said the Ministry of Information has prepared a draft law in this regard which has been sent to all stakeholders to solicit their recommendations.
The minister said the government will regulate all media and no one will be able to defame anyone under the new law.
Whereas the Chairman of the Standing Committee, Faisal Javed said the government will not allow gagging of free media. He said media is always free in a democratic set up.
The chairman said no action was taken by PEMRA when a fake news was broadcast on a TV channel regarding Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Khan Afridi.
Secretary Information told the meeting that in future television ads will be allowed to run on TV after the approval of Information Ministry.
He said an overseeing committee headed by Minister for Information has been set up for supervising the content of advertisements.
Earlier in the day, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) had directed all news and current affairs channels to strictly adhere to media ethics while reporting incidents related to violence, crime, sexual abuse, terrorism, abduction, natural disaster and so on.
The authority had already issued an advice on the same matter last month in which all news channels were requested to ensure strict compliance to the provisions of the Electronic Media (Prorgammes and Advertisements) Code of Conduct 2015 and to specifically follow the provisions pertaining to violence, crime, sexual abuse, rape, terrorism, abduction and natural calamity, a press release said.
However, Pemra is in receipt of constant complaints from segments of the society particularly from the parents who complaint about unnecessary sensationalism by news channels.
It is being complained that the channels go overboard while reporting crimes which is akin to glorification of crime and criminals.
The authority again reminded the all satellite TV channels to avoid unnecessary hype and sensationalism while reporting crime, violence, sexual abuse, back to back broadcast of “breaking News” on crimes, disclosure of identities of victims and criminals and avoid inclusion of such news in every bulletin.
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