At the request of Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, the government of Dubai has pulled the plug on two Pakistani owned TV stations that operate from there. GEO-TV and ARY Digital both offer a variety of programming, including news, entertainment, sports and music.
Police raided GEO TV in March after it aired live coverage of clashes between police and lawyers supporting Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, the independent-minded chief justice who was removed from his post following Musharraf's state of emergency. Equipment was broken and journalists were beaten.
Currently journalists are protesting in the streets of Islamabad and elsewhere to protest Musharraf's strongarm tactics which limit how news may be reported there. The Daily Times reports:
The journalists said the government had asked the owners of the media organisations to sign an undertaking to abide by the code of conduct and two ordinances of the Pakistan Electronic Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), which have not been finalised so far.
The newsmen said the government could not deceive the people by imposing bans on specific popular talk shows and that the government would have to give full freedom to the media organisations to talk about the problems being faced by the people. They said freedom of press meant the freedom of people as the media highlighted the suppression of people who need the attention of the government.
Musharraf had pulled the plug on Pakistani national television stations, but today allowed two of them back on the air (minus their "most popular programmes", according to the Hindu). following talks between the owners of the channels and the government. The channels back on Thursday were Aaj TV and Dawn News. Two international channels, CNN and BBC, were also back.
No comments:
Post a Comment