ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb on Tuesday said the government has neither closed any channel nor any program, elaborating: “We have not filed a case against any journalist under the PECA Act.
Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb said this while speaking at a meeting of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting held here in Islamabad with Chairman of the Committee Senator Faisal Javed in the chair.
The minister said the federal government has started preparing a business plan for Radio Pakistan.
She informed the meeting that the Director General Radio Pakistan has prepared the plan, but it has not been formally submitted to the ministry yet. She said four state-of-the-art podcast studios have been established in Radio Pakistan.
She invited the committee members to visit Radio Stations to personally see these podcast studios. She said the previous government did no practical work for the uplift of the national broadcaster.
The Information Minister clarified that no permission has been given to Radio Pakistan to sell its land or give it to the private sector. She pointed out it was only asked to review the proposal to build cinema on Radio Pakistan’s land to generate income for it.
To a query of a member of the Committee, Radio Pakistan DG Tahir Hassan said that funds have been arranged and the pension of widows of employees will be paid soon.
On the points raised by Chairman Committee Senator Faisal Javed regarding freedom of media, the Information Minister said the government has neither closed any channel nor any program. “We have not filed a case against any journalist under the PECA Act”, she added.
Marriyum Aurangzeb said this is not the dark period of the last four years when programs and channels were used to be closed. “We not only fully believe in the freedom of media, but also practice it”, the minister asserted.
The Chairman Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) informed the Committee that the channels themselves decide whether or not telecast PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s speech. He said the PEMRA has not imposed any restrictions in this regard.
