Pakistan media regulator gets tough on channels
November 28, 2016
By Chris Forrester
Pakistan’s Electronic Media & Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has suspended the licences of two satellite channels and fined three channels one million (Pakistan) Rupees (about €8925) each for “levelling baseless allegations against the nation’s Supreme Court”.
Din News and Neo TV saw their licences suspended and fined, and SACH TV also penalised with a 1 million Rupees fine for airing remarks considered by PEMRA to be unlawful.
BBC Monitoring reported that the three satellite were issued with legal notices on November 19th and given 7 days to respond.
After hearing the viewpoint of three TV Channels, PEMRA suspended the licence of Din news channel for 30 days and imposed fine of Rs one million besides directions to pay fine amount within 15 days. The decision would be effective from December 1st at 1200 hours.
The similar decision was given for Neo TV. However, its license was suspended for seven days. The PEMRA imposed fine of Rs. 1 million on SACH TV and asked to pay amount within 15 days.