PEMRA blocks private TV transmissions
* Police raid Aaj TV offices in Islamabad
PESHWAR/KARACHI/ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) pulled all national and international private news channels off the air except the state-run Pakistan Television (PTV) in the NWFP at 6pm on Saturday. The government also blocked transmissions in major cities and telephone services in Islamabad were cut, AP reported.
An official from Peshawar PEMRA office, seeking anonymity, told Daily Times that they had received a notification from the Islamabad office saying that President General Pervez Musharraf had ordered that all national and international private channels’ transmission be stopped till the next presidential notification. “Peshawar is the last city where PEMRA stopped the transmission after Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi,” M Tanvir, a technician at the Five-Star Cable Network said. In Karachi, the transmission of private TV channels was blocked at around 5pm on Saturday. The websites of two major news channels were also partly inaccessible.
Aaj TV offices raided: Police raided the offices of the private Aaj television channel in Islamabad early on Sunday morning and attempted to confiscate broadcasting equipment, AFP quoted a senior producer as saying.
“Police have entered our office and a judicial officer is trying to confiscate our equipement,” Aaj TV News Director Tatal Hussain said. “They have no legal paperwork with them,” he said.
Hussain said police wanted to impound a van that is used to broadcast live coverage. A six-member PEMRA team led by Hussain Ahmad Channa also broke into the office of a local radio station located on Shahrah-e-Faisal and forcibly confiscated the transmitter at around 5.30pm on Saturday.
Source: Daily Times
Date:11/4/2007
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