Pemra warns TV channels to abstain from unethical practices
Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) while taking serious notice of creeping unacceptable practices of moral policing by some TV channels has warned them to abstain from indulging in unethical journalistic practices whereby any act of a reporter, electronic media journalist, anchor or the TV channel as a whole be assumed in dis-conformity to generally accepted standards of decency, morality and ethics.
Under the guise of investigative journalism some TV channels have gone overboard and have literally intruded public privacy which is not acceptable at all. No mature media demonstrates such acts which unfortunately is the case in Pakistan, said Pemra in a statement on Saturday.
Referring to a programme by a private TV aired on January 17, Pemra raised concern over the glaring irony of negative / notorious investigative journalism under whose garb some channels have been flouting all social norms.
Pemra has been receiving number of complaints on daily basis from public who vociferously condemn such acts of media reporting. Only since the airing of the TV programme two weeks ago, Pemra on its call centre (0800-73672) has received 345 complaints. In response Pemra had issued a show-cause notice to the channel and the channel administration under section 26 of Pemra Act, is also summoned to appear before the Council of Complaints on February 6.
Pemra while warning the channel said that it is in consensual interest that the electronic media must behave responsibly and do not sensationalize while reporting the issues relating to ones privacy, solitude and or ordeals e.g. rapes, murders, assaults, kidnappings, robberies, thefts etc. This kind of reporting is in sheer violation of Section 20 (b) (c) & (f) of Pemra Act 2007 read with Rule 15 (1) of Pemra Rules 2009 and clauses (b), (c), (h), (i) & (l) of Pemra Code of Conduct and the license terms & conditions. It is unfortunate that channels while not realizing the social impact of such reporting, are only inclined to enhance their ratings which is reprehensible, said Pemra. It said that electronic media must exhibit maturity and understand that what is desirable or not.
Pemra has always upheld its stance on self-regulation and has always been proponent of free, fair and unprejudiced media. But, unedited reporting of some matters of absolute personal privacy by channels just to take lead on one another by simulating such incidents and projecting it like a real time drama is alarming.
Source: The News
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