New code for broadcasters, cable operators soon: Firdous

90% of the content will have to be indigenous; Pemra to take up pending cases.

ISLAMABAD:

The government has devised a new code of conduct for broadcasters and cable operators under which all private television channels will be bound to telecast foreign content in compliance of a fresh order.

The new order will keep a check on channels regarding transmission of national and international content within prescribed limits and rules, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan told senators on Thursday.

“The new code of conduct will ensure the supremacy of state-run television channel (PTV) on private broadcast media under new rules being amended in light of rules of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra),” Awan said.

Pemra will work as an autonomous body to ensure the implementation of rules and deal with licence matters, terms and conditions, she said. “Ninety per cent of the content must be indigenous and a 10 per cent provision will be available to all TV channels for foreign content,” she said.

A draft of the fresh policy will be finalised by the end of June this year, she said. To improve the existing code, the government has constituted a committee which will assist in chalking out a mutually-accepted voluntary code of conduct based on the principle of self-regulation. Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G Ibrahim will head the committee and members would include IA Rehman, Shafqat Mehmood, Javed Jabbar, Mehdi Hassan, Zafarullah Khan, Khalid Ghaus, Sania Nishtar, Siddique Baloch and Shahjahan Syed.

Awan said that Pemra has registered 2,495 complaints against various private TV channels and has issued 135 show-cause notices to them. “It will take up pending cases in various courts across the country and Pemra’s legal team will plead the cases,” she said.

“Broadcast media, under the rules cannot play advertisements for more than 12 minutes every hour but the code is being violated by electronic media,” she said.

Awan said that only Pemra was authorised to issue licences and had issued around 85 licences to date, a majority of them to entertainment channels.

Senators Kalsoom Perveen, Ismail Buledi, Gulshan Saeed, Sabir Baloch and Hafiz Rashid expressed their concern over the issuance of licences to channels which do not run their own transmission. They said that these licences were issued without considering any criteria.

Senator Gulshan Saeed pointed out some private channels which, she said, were promoting ‘vulgarity’. Awan responded that Pemra had issued show-cause notices to them and the cases are pending in courts.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 1^st, 2011.