Media may get industry status

Senate panel approves Press Council Amendment Bill 2020

ISLAMABAD:

A Senate panel on Wednesday recommended conferring the status of industry to the media in the country.

This was recommended during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting which met in the Parliament House on Wednesday with Senator Faisal Javed in the chair.

Supporting the suggestion, Senator Javed said that the industry status will help offer greater opportunities for journalists, producers and all those attached with the field.

He directed the Information and Broadcasting Secretary to brief the panel at the next meeting of the panel on the matter.

The committee also unanimously approved the Press Council of Pakistan (PCP) Amendment Bill 2020.

Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Javed Abbasi, however, opposed the deployment of a retired judge of the Supreme Court (SC) as the PCP chairman, noting that professionals belonging to the media, law and social fields should also be deemed as eligible for becoming the council’s chairman. Two senators will also be part of the council.

The panel also reviewed the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) Amendment Bill 2020, tabled by Senator Abbasi in the Senate.

PML-N Senator Pervaiz Rasheed asserted that Pemra was a regulatory authority and it has been given some tools to do its work. However, he asserted that it had misused its powers. Senator Rasheed added that cable operators arbitrarily change the station on which licensed channels being beamed on the authority’s orders and those who defy Pemra’s orders can have their equipment seized.

He maintained that safeguarding the rights of media workers through Pemra will only compound problems.

Reiterating reservations about the authority’s vast powers, the senator expressed doubts that it will be beneficial for the media workers if the regulator is also given powers to protect their rights.

The committee chairman said that different television (TV) channels hired the employees but deprive them of their salaries for months.

The managing director of Pakistan Television (PTV) told the committee that the employee of a media firm can file complaints against their managements to the Council of Complaints, which comprises members from the civil society. Reviewing an analysis by experts on the content of Pakistan Television (PTV) Sports, Javed termed it as substandard and unsatisfactory.

However, he maintained that the channel must not be used for fuelling political agendas of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), individuals or any other sports board in the country.

“It will be better if the Senate session is aired on PTV Sports instead of the [current round of] analytical shows,” he remarked

In the public interest, committee members demanded to stream live on the internet the senate and National Assembly (NA) sessions if they are being held simultaneously. For terrestrial networks, it was recommended airing them on separate channels if there was a clash in timings.

Participants of the committee also discussed the closure of PTV Bolan, as raised by Senator Usman Kakar during a session of the upper house in July. The PTV chief said that they were in the process of revamping all channels owing to which some programmes were disturbed.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2020.