No political or govt pressure on Pemra: chairman | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

No political or govt pressure on Pemra: chairman

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Pakistan Electric Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), Mushtaq Malik categorically rejected the speculations that Pemra has not given license to Geo English Channel because of political pressure.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday he said there is no pressure on Pemra from any quarter whether political or government. Chairman Pemra said the reason behind not issuing the license was ‘Cross Media Rules’, which are under formative phase, while the ‘Ownership Rules’ are yet to be finalised by the federal government.

He said cross media restrictions were relaxed under the PEMRA Ordinance 2002 through the Pemra (Amendment) Act 2007 and the federal government was to make rules in order to regulate the cross media ownership.

He said Pemra has no antagonism to any media outfit and they believe in free and healthy media impetus in the country. The chairman further said that a request has also been initiated to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting to prescribe media policy.

He clarified that besides Geo TV there were few other companies who were also not issued license due to similar or other reasons. The rationale behind cross media restriction is to avoid undue concentration of media in few hands, exclude monopolies and ensure plurality and diversity in media.
Source: The News
Date:5/13/2008