The transmission was shut down for 28 hours to avoid giving live coverage to the abortive operation launched by the police and Frontier Constabulary on Saturday against the protesters of the Faizabad sit-in. The decision was taken during a meeting between Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
A similar media blackout had occurred when General (retd) Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency on November 3, 2007 that continued for about 88 days, receiving domestic and international condemnation.
Social media remain blocked across Pakistan for second day in a row
Minister of State for Information, Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb said in a statement that the transmission of TV channels was restored in pursuance of the directives of the PM.
“Suspending the transmissions was a tough and painful decision which had to be taken in the national interest after exhaustive deliberations with a view to prevent the spread of chaos and anarchy in the country,” the minister said in the statement.
Private news channels were taken off air across the country on Saturday afternoon following the notification of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) that was issued around 11am barring them from live coverage of the operation.
Despite the warning, marathon coverage of stone pelting, tear gassing and skirmishes of police with rioters continued unabated. It led to countrywide protests in favour of protesters, while public from twin cities also started assembling around the sit-in venue.
In view of the precarious situation, the government took all the private TV channels off air while the state-run PTV was left for public across the country for news and updates.
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Later in the evening, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority announced it was taking down Facebook, Twitter, Daily Motion and Youtube till further orders. On Sunday evening these social media sites were gradually reopened.
After the blackout of private TV channels and social media sites, rumour mills went into overdrive making people share half-cooked and unverified information on messaging services.
The decision to take TV channels off air and block social media sites was widely condemned by journalists and cyber activists.
“The government firmly believes in the freedom of expression and the only objective behind this move is to ensure national security and safety of lives and properties of the citizens,” the information minister said in the statement, apparently replying to criticism against the government for taking such a decision.
After the transmission was resumed, the Pemra issued another set of 20-page guidelines for TV channels stating that any channel found violating the code of conduct with live coverage or on spot interviews would be taken off air.
Known for cyber activism, a website Bytes For All believed that the age of technology, connectivity and unrestricted speech were the only appropriate solutions to take the country out of the ongoing socio-political chaos.
“Information blackout, suspending communication means and denying fundamental rights to the citizens can’t be the solutions to such problems in a democratic society,” it said in a statement.
Senator Rehman Malik, chairperson for Senate Standing Committee on Interior, also condemned the decision and said it had seriously dented the freedom of press and will certainly provide a space to the propagandists to spread false information among the masses to further deteriorate the situation.
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