Pakistan

Satellite uplink rights of BBC, CNN suspended

Transmissions of nine foreign news channels suspended.

Qamar Zaman May 08, 2011

ISLAMABAD:

Authorities suspended on Saturday uplink facilities of nine foreign satellite news channels, including the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Voice of America (VoA), CNN and Al Jazeera.

Information Minister Firdous Aashiq Awan said the suspension was temporary and an inquiry had been launched to ascertain why the foreign channels were using uplinking facilities without first obtaining mandatory permission from the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra).

She said that certain violations had been observed in the past week’s coverage of the Abbottabad operation to kill al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. “They were spitting venom against Pakistan,” said the information minister.

After issuing show-cause notices, Pemra suspended uplink facility of Fox News, NBC News, CNN, CNS, IBN, BBC, Al Jazeera, Voice of America and Sky News for violating Section 31 of the Pemra Act of 2007.

According to the Section 31 of the act, no satellite uplink could be established “without a valid teleport or satellite TV licence from the authority (Pemra); The authority may…issue permission in writing to any party to carry out temporary uplinking (facility) from a ground transmission facility to a satellite…to transmit any programme within or outside Pakistan.” “The immediate suspension of signals of these international news channels has been made to preserve Pemra rules,” said Awan.

“They were violating Pemra rules, so we suspended their transmissions after conducting internal inquiries against them,” she added. These channels, Awan said, had been asked to submit explanations of their inappropriate behaviour within a few days.

Pemra issues temporary uplinking permission for live coverage from Pakistan for a specific event and time.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2011.

COMMENTS (7)

Big man | 13 years ago | Reply @Chilli: Well Mr/Ms Chilli, I agree with you...I am afraid to say that she may know anything about the population ministry as well...

Abid Saeed Malik | 13 years ago | Reply Well, She took notice of these channels at a situation which is far worse than any thing else and its nothing but a lost race within, why didn't she asked the Americans and think-tanks of these channels that how they have come to know about Bin laden's den and why they didn't disclose the link between ISI and Al-Qaida when they said that we had been watching him for a very long time. Now they are fabricating the stuff which is being mounted on Pakistan day by day. Did international press tried to find the truth of this covert operation, no body saw the body, and videos released seems to be fake and people say these are just holliwood fads. International media must show their responsibility as we are also living in this world, where a former US president (G.W.Bush) addmitted that "We mounted war on Iraq on false and fake CIA reports regarding the WMD (Wepons of mass destruction). So its not the people of America who are being fooled by the CIA but other democratic countries as well and thse news channels are after the Bad News, as to make it their top story.

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the Truth | 13 years ago | Reply Sad, just plain sad. Her reasoning is flawed at its very core. "they were spitting venom" is simply not a credible excuse. This is the problem with the Parliamentary system in Pakistan. Government is forced to pick its Ministers from amongst the elected representatives rather than choose the most qualified person in the country in that particular field. At this point the only thing that can save Pakistan is a change to the Presidential system of Government. A would be Presidential candidate would have to present his agenda and how he or she hopes to implement it. The person opposing him or her would have to do the same. The People of Pakistan could literally choose the man they want running the country, instead of the person, from the party, that picks the president. The Presidential system creates a greater separation between the Legislative branch and the Executive branch of Government. The accountability that everyone wants comes with that. And useless people won't end up as information minister.

Fahad Raza | 13 years ago | Reply Yay!! excellent

KANHA | 13 years ago | Reply what else one expect from a country which has never believed in democratic values.

Chilli | 13 years ago | Reply She has just moved from Family Planning Ministry to Information Ministy. You can expect anything from her.

narayana murthy | 13 years ago | Reply There's a saying in my language "Badavana kopa davadege moola". A poor man can vent his anger only on his jaws. Looks like that is what Pakistan is doing.

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