Marriyum highlights media restrictions in PTI era

Minister says bid was made to impose black law to curb media freedom

ISLAMABAD:

Federal Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb on Saturday said that restrictions were imposed on the media due to the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority’s (Pemra) order, and during the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) era, they tried to bring the Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority black law, which was opposed by all political parties and media organisations.

“The Pemra Amendment Bill 2023 is the bill not of the government, but of Pakistan, the people of Pakistan, the media and journalists, in which the rights of journalists are protected. It includes the representation of journalistic organisations, and they are empowered to make decisions,” the minister said while addressing a news conference.

She said that there were 140 channels licenced by Pemra in Pakistan. Among them, 35 were news and current affairs channels, 52 entertainment channels, 25 regional channels, six non-commercial and education channels, five sports channels, seven health and agro channels, and 10 education commercial channels.

The minister said that Pemra Ordinance was promulgated in 2002 and now in 2023, the media landscape had changed and became diverse.

“We are all going through a new era of social media where new platforms have been introduced to express opinions. All these channels are present on cyberspace and social media," she added.

Marriyum said that during the last four years of the PTI, there was censorship on the media and former prime minister Imran Khan got the title of “media predator”, adding that the title was not given to him by his political rivals or any organisation of Pakistan, but by international journalistic organisations keeping in view the freedom of expression in Pakistan.

The programmes running at that time were stopped, journalists and news channels were banned, she added.

She said that in the past, journalists were attacked, kidnapped, and tortured, their programmes were stopped and they were sent to jails.

The minister said that during the PTI tenure, the then-information minister used to slap journalists, he used to threaten them and media organisations to support the draconian PMDA law.