Government unfolding new horizons of broadcast openness: minister
ISLAMABAD (December 24 2003): Information and broadcasting Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Tuesday that the government was unfolding new horizons of broadcast openness and a new era of television is set to establish.
Addressing a seminar on “Opening the skies,” organised by the Daily Times, he said, “The government has assisted private media to flourish and has withdrawn a number of laws considered as suppressing the press freedom.”
The permission of cross media ownership in Pakistan was unique in itself, he said, adding, “This is not available even in the countries whom we consider the seats of journalism.”
The government was also trying to create a level playing field for all the stakeholders “to let survive the fittest only”.
He said, “Our government is decentralising media control as the society is opening up and economic opportunities are getting multiplied.”
Appreciating the private entrepreneurship, he said, the government has issued two licences of Direct to Home (DTH) facility to ARY and Cross Crescent, while PTV was in the queue.
The minister said, “We are adopting means of modern science in television broadcast to make it more lively and colourful. Digitalisation is under process and satellite is already being utilised.”
He said that the media could be both as explosive as weapons of mass destruction and as useful as life saving drugs.
The minister said that no media in the world enjoyed absolute freedom. “It’s either in the clutches of the governments or seizes of the corporate elite”.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:12/24/2003
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