Minister asks cable operators not to screen vulgar contents
ISLAMABAD- The federal Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, has said that his ministry was making all out efforts for the welfare of the private sector and wanted the investors in the cable television (CTV) to prosper.
But at the same time, the minister added, he was not in favour of CTV operators to screen anything “vulgar” in scenes or contents, as it would erode the cultural basis of the country.
In this regard, he quoted a saying from a sage that drawing a fine line between “life and essentials for life” and that “life could not be sacrificed for the essentials”. He said: “the entertainment is essential for human life but it could not be sacrificed at the altar of vulgarity or obscenity”.
The federal minister made these observations while inaugurating a one-day seminar on “Cable Television – a Vision for Future”, on March 17, 2003.
The seminar was organised by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regularity Authority (PEMRA), in which the cable operators had distributed leaflets voicing their complaints against the Authority.
A spokesman for the operators had also addressed the opening session of the seminar prior to Sheikh Rashid Ahmed’s inaugural address and blamed the official policies “that had endangered the growth of the medium”.
In a strong-worded speech, Firman Malik accused the Water and Power Development Authority for making it impossible for the operators to share the electric poles for the carriage of their cable.
Malik claimed that at present nearly half a million families earn their livelihood from the CTV and if the government did not resolve their problems all of them would end up on the rocks.
Sheikh Rashid listened to the problems enumerated by the CTV Operators Welfare Association and asked the seminar organisers to sit with the complainants and look into their difficulties and help them out.
He said his colleagues in the Information and Media Development Ministry would help resolve the genuine problems of the operators, adding, he would never allow them to promote their trade on the basis of pornography and obscenity or anything that clashed with the cultural heritage of Pakistan.
He said he wanted them to have the facility of screening Urdu programmes but those must be educational, patriotic and decent in contents and themes.
Sheikh Rashid said he was also not prepared to compromise on the nation’s dignity and its social and cultural heritage.
This was his oblique reference to the demand for the screening of international Urdu programmes that had been raised by the spokesman of the operators, as it was feared that these would promote the Mumbai-made films, some of which bordered on obscenity.
However, he said, he had suggested to the Chairman PEMRA to negotiate with the operators on this point but also monitor their programmes to ensure a strict observance of the code of honour.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:3/18/2003
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