Agency blocked Geo English licence: Sherry
ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Sherry Rehman on Monday revealed in Senate that a sensitive secret agency did not give a clearance and No Objection Certificate (NOC) for Geo English channel to get a licence for transmission.
Sherry gave this reply to the opposition senators who protested reports regarding the government’s plans to gag the media. However, she said such laws were formulated by the previous government, and the present coalition government was working to remove these laws. PML-Q Secretary-General Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who raised the issue on a point of order and referred to the reported threats to the host of Geo show ‘Meray Mutabiq’ and denial of the NOC for issuance of licence for the English channel of Geo.
Mushahid Hussain Sayed said Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik has threatened Dr Shahid Masood of serious consequences while senior journalist of The News, whose integrity cannot be doubted, has also wrote about the government plans of crackdown on the freedom of the media. Rehman Malik, who gave such kind of threats to the media, did not know of changing realities in the country in 2008,” he added.
However, replying to Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Sherry Rehman said the government is dismantling curbs imposed on the media by the previous government. She said any threats to the media would be condemnable and added that PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari had himself contradicted any such instance.
Source: The News
Date:5/13/2008
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