The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has ordered TV channels to refrain from broadcasting “judgemental and unipolar remarks” about the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in their news programmes.
In a letter issued Wednesday, the state’s media regulator said it had “monitored with concerns” that various talk shows and news programmes broadcast “highly unsubstantiated, judgmental, and unipolar remarks” about the anti-graft watchdog without getting its official point of view.
The PEMRA said broadcasting such remarks is against the orders issued by the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan. “Airing of such unsubstantiated and unipolar remarks are in absolute disregard to […] the orders of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of Pakistan passed in Sou Moto Case No. 28 of 2018 dated 12.09.2020 regarding the prohibition of discussion on sub-judice and under trail cases,” it wrote.
“Airing of such content is also in violation of Section 20(d) & (f) of PEMRA Ordinance 2002 as amended by PEMRA (Amendment) Act 2007, Rule 15(10) of PEMRA Rules 2009, and Clauses 3(10)(i), 4(2), 4(4), 14(7)(a&c), 4(10), 5, 17 & 22 of Electronic Media (Programmes & Advertisements) Code of Conduct 2015.”
“The licensees are also obliged through these provisions of law to observe reasonable constraints while extracting contents from court proceedings, police records and court proceedings and to air them fairly, accurately and in an objective manner,” it added.
The regulator also advised TV channels to tighten their editorial oversight and review the programmes’ content via in-house monitoring committees.
