KARACHI: Pakistani journalists on Saturday welcomed a Sindh High Court decision that declared as "illegal" the power of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) chairman to suspend licenses of television channels.
The Sindh High Court ruled on Friday that the country's media regulator could not delegate power to its chairman or any other official to suspend TV channels without framing the required rules. The court also declared as void the suspension of Channel 24 by the PEMRA chairman in April last year.
“We welcome the verdict, though we also believe that more needs to be done in this area since the media regulator has been transgressing its limits,” said Dr. Jabbar Khattak, a senior journalist and former secretary general of the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE).
The CPNE also expressed its reservation about a PEMRA directive from March that prohibited news channels from broadcasting analyses or opinions related to the working of the country’s anti-graft National Accountability Bureau.
“PEMRA has become an instrument to control the media, and its officials issue verbal instructions to news channels regarding minute editorial matters,” Khattak said. “This is not just unlawful but also a serious threat to press freedom in the country.”
He added that the media regulator’s role should have been reduced after the passage of the 18th constitutional amendment since it had made information a provincial subject.
Mazhar Abbas, former secretary general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalist (PFUJ) and Karachi Press Club (KPC), said the high court verdict showed how PEMRA had transgressed its authority.
“There is a proper procedure for the suspension of news channels,” he said. “An independent council of complaints had been created for the same purpose.”
Despite repeated attempts by Arab News, PEMRA's chairman Muhammad Saleem Baig and general manager Muhammad Tahir have not responded to requests for comment.
Pakistan’s media community has frequently accused PEMRA of stifling voices that challenge the government or question various state policies. The media has on many occasions denied the allegations.