Tweak in law to tackle fake news on cards: Firdous

Says with rise of social media, ‘national interest and social and cultural norms are at times undermined’

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan has conceded government’s failure to keep a check and balance on the social media and said that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) was assigned the task to devise a strategy to counter the issue of fake news but the authority could not complete the job.

Firdous said that a committee of Ministry of Information has been formed to propose changes in laws to tackle the issue of fake news and character assassination of individuals on different media platforms.

She was speaking during a meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage here at Parliament House on Wednesday with Senator Faisal Javed in chair.

Firdous said that the changed laws will be passed from parliament with consensus.

“The media has transitioned from print to electronic and now to social media,” she said, and added that “fake news is a matter of concern for all of us”.

While speaking about the freedom of media, she laid stress on its responsible role.

“Since the creation of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), the media has changed,” she observed, and noted, “Cyber Wing of Ministry of Information, Cyber Crime Wing of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) were handling different aspects of social media”.

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The minister noted that with the rise of social media, a vacuum had been created and “national interest and social and cultural norms were at times undermined”.

While, discussing the matter of public importance raised by Senator Abdur Rehman Malik regarding character assassination of PPP leader on electronic media, the mover observed that fake news was damaging everyone irrespective of party or any other affiliation, and there should be a plausible and long-term solution considering the ethical values of being a media person.

He said parameters needed to be defined and a proper legislation should be in place or else some required amendments in Pemra Act be made.

Firdous observed that the concerns regarding fake news were coming from different sectors.

She pointed out that there was a collective understanding to bring forth a responsible role of media without putting any bars on freedom of expression and agreed that some structural reforms and empowerment was needed in Pemra under a set of guidelines.

It was told that an exercise in this regard was held by constituting a committee to coordinate with all government and private media stakeholders and the body may guide the ministry as to how to go about it.

The committee decided to wait until the proposal comes from ministry by August to subsequently share their recommendations.

Commenting on the withholding of pension of PTV employees since 2016, Firdous said that PTV does not have the resources to pay its staff the monthly salaries much less than pensions.

The minister remarked that the government has planned to release one year’s pensions and devise a strategy accordingly. She told that Rs700 million had been issued for this purpose.

The committee was also given a detailed briefing on working and performance of Lok Virsa and was told that Lok Virsa receives Rs95.54 million grant in aid by the government of which Rs72.86 million are spent on employees, while Rs22.680 million on operating expenses.

The body appreciated the proposal of having book stalls at airports and railway stations to create awareness about Pakistani culture and heritage.

The committee recommended having a close working coordination between PTV and Lok Virsa by doing programmes and marathon transmissions on special events arranged by Lok Virsa.

The proposal of advertising the summer camp and other activities related to children in government and private schools was also stressed upon.

The committee was informed that Lok Virsa was aiming at arranging Lok melas in the provincial capitals, collaborating with universities on heritage awareness, conducting cultural surveys and research, arranging talent hunt folk festivals and making efforts to revive the dying arts and crafts.

Regarding the steps taken by the government to preserve the national heritage in the country since June 2013, the committee decided to conclude the matter due to continuing absence of the mover Senator Talha Mehmood.

The meeting was attended among others by Senators Abdur Rehman Malik, Sajjad Hussain Turi, Muammad Tahir Bizenjo, Anwarul Haq Kakar, Dr Ghous Muhammad Khan Niazi, Kamran Micheal and Pervaiz Rasheed.