Pakistan’s media regulator imposes ban on live broadcast of ex-PM Khan’s speeches

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s media regulator imposed a ban on live broadcast of former prime minister Imran Khan’s speeches late Saturday night, saying he was “spreading hate speech” after he criticized senior police officials and a magistrate while addressing a public rally in the federal capital.
Khan held the rally in Islamabad to show solidarity with his chief of staff, Dr. Shahbaz Gill, who told a television talk show earlier this month that army officers should not follow orders of their top command if they were “against the sentiments of the masses.”
His statement was described as “seditious” by the media regulator before Gill was arrested from Islamabad. Subsequently, the former prime minister and his close aides maintained Gill had been “brutally tortured” during police interrogation, though the government denied the claim.
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) circulated a notification on Saturday night, saying Khan was making “baseless allegations and spreading hate speech through his provocative statements against state institutions and officers which is prejudicial to the maintenance of law and order and is likely to disturb public peace and tranquility.”
“After analyzing the content of the speech it has been observed that the content was telecasted live by the licensees without effective time delay mechanism ... [T]herefore, the competent authority i.e. Chairman PEMRA in view of the above mentioned background and reasons, in exercise of delegated powers of the Authority vested in Section 27(a) of the PEMRA Ordinance 2002 as amended by PEMRA (Amendment) Act 2007, hereby prohibits broadcast of live speech of Mr. Imran Khan on all satellite TV channels with immediate effect.”
The notification said, however, that Khan’s recorded speeches were permitted to be aired after effective delay mechanism was put in place to ensure effective monitoring and editorial control.
In response to the development, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party urged its followers and workers to subscribe to its YouTube channel while condemning the “fascist” government for trying to ban the speech of its leader on television.