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                        <title>The Express Tribune</title>
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			<title>Hear no evil</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/308422/hear-no-evil</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/308422/hear-no-evil#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 18 Dec 11 19:55:07 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Appears to have whipped the cable operators into a kind of nationalistic passion, motivating them to act on their own.]]>
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				<![CDATA[A local NGO has taken cable channel operators and Pemra to court for their decision made some weeks ago to remove foreign news channels from their list of channels.

The petition has been accepted by the Sindh High Court. The channels had been removed from the airwaves, apparently by cable operators acting on their own, after the Nato air strike that ignited a furore earlier this month, and coincided with the airing of a BBC programme which claimed links existed between militants and Pakistani intelligence agencies. While this charge is hardly a new one, it appears to have whipped the operators into a kind of nationalistic passion, which motivated them to shut down the channels. Pemra, the electronic media regulatory body, appears to have done nothing at all to intervene in the matter — with no apparent legal basis in place behind the decision taken by the operators. The situation is such that a channel like Fox News is the only Western news channel still on offer for most cable subscribers.

This is obviously a chaotic scenario. Tens of thousands of viewers across the country have been deprived of the right to access crucial information and to make their own choice with regards to what they view. Such choice is, of course, vital; it is in the first place a right of citizens — and secondly, no ‘bans’ should be required, given that the persons watching news broadcasts or other programming have the choice to simply switch away from a channel they would prefer not to watch. All it takes is a tiny finger movement to flick a button on the remote control.

It is even more absurd that the decision on this was taken by cable operators themselves. Where was Pemra, we ask? And for that matter, why were no questions asked by the government? We need to step forward carefully. Censorship has become too frequent in our country; websites of all kinds have been blocked by the PTA and there has even been an attempt to regulate text messages. The closing down of key channels is a continuation of this trend. It must not be permitted and urgent steps should be taken to allow the channels back on air without further delay.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Off air: BBC ban an ‘intolerable interference’ in press freedom</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/300850/off-air-bbc-ban-an-%e2%80%98intolerable-interference%e2%80%99-in-press-freedom</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/300850/off-air-bbc-ban-an-%e2%80%98intolerable-interference%e2%80%99-in-press-freedom#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 01 Dec 11 22:18:11 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[express]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Punjab]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=300850</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[NGO says cable operators acted at establishment’s behest.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The Centre for Peace and Democracy has condemned the All Pakistan Cable Operators Association decision to stop airing BBC World as an “intolerable interference” in press freedom.


The ban will result in millions of viewers across Pakistan being deprived of their right of access to information, said Muhammad Shoaib Adil, the CPD’s executive director, in a statement released on Thursday. The CPD is a non-government organisation that aims to promote secular and democratic values in the country.

Adil accused the cable operators of taking the step at the behest of the establishment.

The cable operators made the announcement at a press conference earlier this week, citing the BBC programme Secret Pakistan as one of the reasons.

Adil said that by imposing a unilateral ban on a news channel, the cable operators were “dictating their terms” to the viewers. He said their action was an abuse of power.

He said that the media was at the centre of the struggle to restore democratic values in Pakistan and curbing it would set back this struggle. He said all Pakistan’s governments had sought to control the press to keep a check on public debate and criticism.

He said the current government had taken very few steps to ensure the freedom of the press, and its failure to take action against the cable operators for taking the BBC off air was the latest example of its lack of commitment to this freedom.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2nd, 2011.]]>
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			<title>I’m a ghairatmand Pakistani</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/300084/i%e2%80%99m-a-ghairatmand-pakistani</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/300084/i%e2%80%99m-a-ghairatmand-pakistani#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov 11 18:05:24 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Atika.rehman]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Didn't the Americans create these terror­ists in the first place? It’s only fair that they pay for it.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[I can stomp on a Nato flag, burn a poster of US President Barack Obama, maybe even make a paper drone and strap it to my T-shirt in protest of drone attacks — but you’ll never see me march down the street against the Taliban.

My friends are just like me; many of them have changed their Facebook profile pictures to one that bears, in bleeding font, the slogan “We condemn the attack of Nato on Pakistani soldiers”; some have made “Angry with Nato (insert angry emoticon here)” their BlackBerry Messenger Status. With us, “Go, America, Go” and “Crush America, Hate America” banners are all the rage. But we were silent when the Taliban avenged Osama bin Laden’s death by killing 89 Frontier Constabulary recruits this past May.

I don’t know when I became this selective about my condemnations, but as far as I remember, my ghairat has always been like a hormonal teenager ready to unleash itself at the prod of a finger. And God help the world if that finger is white; I hate American fingers; they’re too friendly with those Israeli and Indian fingers that I’ve sworn to hate forever, and they’re the puppet masters in this great game for oil (wait a minute, you really thought the War on Terror is a war against militancy? Poor, deluded you).

Now I know you’re going to tell me ‘don’t bite the hand that feeds’, because America gives us millions of dollars in aid every year. But does that mean that they own us? That they’ve purchased our sovereignty and can fly drones or SEAL Team 6 through our airspace to kill ‘high-value targets’ on a whim? Kudos to them for getting bin Laden, but how dare they criticise our beloved army and imply that it protected him? Not only did that incident make us look like fools, it was the beginning of this grand conspiracy to malign our armed forces and military. Like an ISI official said after the raid, “We’re good, but we’re not God.” Ever since then, these blasted American news agencies began a slander campaign against our military, furthering the American crusade to make us look like terrorist sympathisers. Aren’t these Americans the ones that created these terrorists in the first place? It’s only fair that they pay for the mess they helped create when they wanted these jihadis to fight the Soviets they hated so much.

After all these months of distorted facts from the foreign press and vehement denials by our beloved army, the decision by cable operators to block the BBC is a welcome move to defend our ghairat. Who the hell do these British journos think they are, making a documentary that questions Pakistan’s commitment in its war against militancy? Could they not show sensitivity at a time when these Nato butchers have slaughtered our soldiers? Our local channels may have shoved cameras into the faces of grieving families of target killing victims, but they’ve played Noor Jehan’s “Ae Watan Ke Sajilay Jawano” enough times this week to make my heart melt and forgive their earlier thoughtlessness.

I’d like to point out here that we should believe only what the Pakistan army tells us. Think about it, have the khakis ever lied to us? Is there anyone who is more patriotic than our generals? If they hate Nato, I hate Nato. If they aren’t friends with Amercia, neither am I…

I would go on endlessly, but this Nadeem F Paracha tweet sent my mind in a whirl: BARKING NEWS: ‘US relaxes visa policy for Pakistanis.’ Hey, where did everybody go? Who’s going to burn this bloody flag? Come back.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1st, 2011.

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Tribune Take: Cable operators, more 'ghairatmand' than thou?</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/300128/tribune-take-cable-operators-more-ghairatmand-than-thou</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/300128/tribune-take-cable-operators-more-ghairatmand-than-thou#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov 11 15:40:09 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[mahawish.rezvi]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=300128</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Blockage of BBC World News by cable operators is a knee-jerk reaction, with little impact on the BBC.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[In today’s episode of the Tribune Take we look at Pakistani cable operators taking BBC World News off-air after proclaiming to ‘ban’ the channel for airing "anti-Pakistan" programming following a NATO air strike on a Pakistani border check post that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Zarrar Khuhro, editor T-Magazine, says this move is likely a "knee-jerk" reaction based on souring US-Pak relations, as taking foreign news channels off-air will have very little impact on the likes of the BBC or CNN. Clarifying that the ban is not imposed directly by the government, he also predicts the channel will come back on-air once the climate in the country has cooled down.

"Whether its a case of the cable operators being more ghairatmand than thou, or whether they have been put up to it by the government or government agencies is of course, another question" he adds.

Khuhro, however, cautions that many in Pakistan including those in the media seem to take reports published in foreign press organizations to be the absolute truth, ignoring the fact that all media organizations have their own agendas.

Read Zarrar Khuhro’s articles here.

The Tribune Take daily news web show will appear on the tribune.com.pk home page.

The Take will feature in-depth interviews and analysis with editors and reporters who are covering the major stories, exploring front page events and major ledes. The news analysis covers the way The Express Tribune examines a story, how we cover it and why.]]>
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			<title>Pakistan may summon BBC as news channel blocked</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/299989/pakistan-may-summon-bbc-as-news-channel-blocked</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/299989/pakistan-may-summon-bbc-as-news-channel-blocked#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov 11 08:14:05 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=299989</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[PEMRA spokesman says authorities can summon BBC representatives and seek an explanation from them.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan said Wednesday it was looking at summoning the BBC to demand an explanation over a documentary about the Taliban that has left the BBC World News channel blocked nationwide.

Cable operators pulled the channel late Tuesday amid anger over NATO air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Khalid Arain, chairman of the Cable Operators Association of Pakistan, confirmed that BBC World News was off-air nationwide and that other Western news channels had been ordered "not to indulge in anti-Pakistan propaganda".

The row relates to a two-part BBC documentary, "Secret Pakistan," which questions Pakistan's commitment to tackling Taliban militancy.

The BBC said it was deeply concerned by the move, and called for its channel to be speedily reinstated.

Media regulator, PEMRA, said: "Definitely, since an issue has been highlighted, the authorities will review the contents of the broadcast and their programmes."

"The authorities can summon BBC representatives and seek an explanation from them," PEMRA spokesman Tahir Izhar told AFP.

Arain said Pakistan was not legally bound to show any foreign channels and was also monitoring Britain's Sky News for "any objectionable content."

Pakistan has aroused increasing criticism overseas and from human rights campaigners within the country over censorship. The row over the BBC saw people post links to the documentary on their Facebook and Twitter accounts.

"It is clear violation of our basic right to information. I condemn it," said Shujauddin Qureshi, a human rights activist.

Saad Haroon wrote on Twitter, "They have taken BBC off the air in Pakistan, great, now we will be the LAST to know when they bomb us."

Last week, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority was forced to row back from banning text messages containing any of nearly 1,700 "obscene" words, many of which were seemingly innocuous, following outrage from users and campaigners.]]>
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			<title>BBC taken off air in Pakistan by cable operators</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/299928/bbc-taken-off-air-in-pakistan-by-cable-operators</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/299928/bbc-taken-off-air-in-pakistan-by-cable-operators#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 29 Nov 11 21:17:13 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[express]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=299928</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Cable operators took BBC World News off their networks after it showed anti-Pakistan documentary.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Popular British news channel, BBC World News was taken off air by a number of Pakistani cable television operators late on Tuesday after proclaiming to ‘ban’ the channel for airing anti-Pakistan programming following a NATO air strike on a Pakistani border check post that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

The All Pakistan Cable Operators Association (APCOA), a body of cable tv operators, held a press briefing in Lahore where they demanded the country’s primary electronic media regulator, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to revoke landing rights to BBC.

APCOA chairman, Kamran Arain said “we want to send them a strong message to stop this. If they don’t stop this, then it is our right to stop them,” referring to pulling the channel off from their cable networks.

The operators say that the move is in response to a documentary broadcast by the channel, entitled Secret Pakistan.

Other foreign TV channels found guilty of broadcasting "anti-Pakistan" content will also be blocked, they threatened.

The BBC said it was deeply concerned by the move, and called for its channel to be speedily reinstated.

"We condemn any action that threatens our editorial independence and prevents audiences from accessing our impartial international news service," a BBC spokesperson said.

"We would urge that BBC World News and other international news services are reinstated as soon as possible."

However, the channel was off air soon after the APCOA press conference was over.

@KurtAchin, Voice of America’s Bureau chief stationed in Islamabad tweeted:

“BBC signal just disappeared in my Islamabad office, following Pakistani cable operators to cut signal over "anti-Pakistan" programming”.

@norbalm, a Karachi based Security Risk Manager tweeted:

“BBC and FOXNEWS off on Worldcall in Karachi now”

Another tweeter, @evo8X8 k wrote:

“my cable operator takes CNN, BBC, &amp; FOX now off... enter AL-JAZEERA”

Though some suggested that it was not a uniform ban with

@asmiather tweeted:

"well on my cable even Fox news is coming so is BBC &amp; sky news &amp; RT @SaadParacha: @FoxNews is on"

The source of the ban

A two-part BBC documentary, "Secret Pakistan", questioned the country's commitment to tackling Taliban militancy. It furthered festering Pakistani anger towards the west after a NATO air stirke on a Pakistani border check post killed 24 soldiers.

It argued that some in Pakistan were playing a double game, quoting US intelligence officials as saying that they acted as America's ally in public while secretly training and arming the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The decision to block BBC World News and other international news channels comes after a media uproar in Pakistan over a Nato air strike that killed 24 Pakistani troops near the Afghan border at the weekend.]]>
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			<title>Broadcast of 'anti-Pakistan' foreign news channels to be shut: Cable operators</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/299510/broadcast-of-anti-pakistan-foreign-news-channels-to-be-shut-cable-operators</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/299510/broadcast-of-anti-pakistan-foreign-news-channels-to-be-shut-cable-operators#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 29 Nov 11 14:05:08 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[express]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=299510</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The operators named BBC News as one of the channels to be closed down.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[The All Pakistan Cable Operators Association declared Tuesday that they will shut down all foreign news channels airing "anti-Pakistan" content from tomorrow. The decision to shut the channels comes after a media uproar both locally and abroad following a Nato air strike that killed 24 Pakistani troops near the Afghan border.

During a media conference in Lahore, the operators named BBC News as one of the channels to be closed down, citing their documentary "Secret Pakistan" as one of the reasons for the decision.

The two part documentary series which aired in Pakistan explored accusations by CIA officials and western diplomats that Pakistan was failing to live up to its alliances in the war on terror.

President of the All Pakistan Cable Operators Association Khalid Arain also demanded that Pemra revoke the landing rights of any foreign news channel that was running "anti-Pakistan propaganda".

"We want to send them a strong message to stop this. If they
don't stop this, then it is our right to stop them," Arain said.

The cable operators declared that no foreign anti-Pakistan channel will "ever" be broadcast in the country.

They called on local media to tackle the ongoing negative propaganda by foreign news channels by presenting Pakistan's viewpoint.]]>
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