PEMRA imposes fine on TV Channels
Shares
ISLAMABAD :Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has fined 17 satellite TV channels (News and Current Affairs) for airing fake news on April 16, 2018 that Lahore High Court had imposed ban on airing speeches of Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz.
Fine of Rs 1 million each has been imposed on channels including Royal News, Din News, Channel- 92, Dunya TV, Channel-5, AAJ TV, Express News, Roze TV, Samaa TV, Dawn News, ARY News, Waqt TV, Bol News, KTN News, Koh-e-Noor TV, Geo News, whereas, fine of Rs. 200,000 has been imposed on Mashriq TV for airing a ticker.
PEMRA had issued show cause notices to the 17 channels on April 19, directing channel management to file written reply as well as appear for personal hearing on April 24.After hearing the representatives of the channels and examining the subsequent written replies, it was found that the channels had violated PEMRA Laws, Electronic Media (Programmes and Advertisements) Code of Conduct, 2015 and ignored an advice issued by the Authority on April 6, 2018 on similar subject.
Moreover, all the channels have also been directed to air apology during prime time on May 6, 2018 for airing fake/false news and to deploy and / or properly utilize time-delay mechanism.
All these channels have further been directed to constitute In-House Editorial Committees in order to ensure effective gate-keeping on its content and ensure compliance of Code of Conduct.
In case of non-compliance of the decision, the Authority shall proceed against the channels for suspension/ revocation of license under Section 30 of PEMRA Ordinance 2002 as amended by PEMRA (Amendment) Act 2007.
