Pakistan implements media Code of Conduct
February 25, 2015
By Chris Forrester
Pakistan’s upper house of parliament is taking on board the recommendations made by its Standing Committee on Information, Broadcasting & National Heritage (IBNH), and will seek to implement an electronic media Code of Conduct for its broadcasting sector.
The Secretary of the IBNH, Muhammad Azam Khan, told the parliamentary meeting that Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Mohammad Nawaz Sharif had formed a committee to look at a code of conduct but the recent focus had been on the overall role of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA).
PEMRA’s chairman Pervaiz Rathore said that the authority was planning to launch DTH services “soon” and a foreign consultant was being hired who would complete study within 90 days. Moreover, he said that bidding for sale of licenses for 7 satellite channels would also be concluded shortly.
Reported by BBC Monitoring, Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the draft of the code of conduct had been under discussion for the past few years and if it was not implemented now, it might undermine the efforts to combat “the scourge of terrorism and extremism”.