KARACHI (April 27 2007): The government strongly believes in a free, vibrant and socially responsible media, Federal Secretary for Information and Broadcasting, Syed Anwar Mahmood said here on Thursday. Talking to APP, the senior government official said Pakistan had emerged to be the only country where “Cross Media Ownership” law had been promulgated.
“This reflects the strong commitment of the government to promote a healthy competitive environment aimed at enhancing public accessibility to true information and quality environment,” he said.
Syed Anwar Mehmood dispelled the impression that the government was reluctant to issue licenses or providing other relevant confirmation or facilities to any of the private television channels.
“On the contrary, with the promulgation of the Cross Media Ownership major newspaper groups who had applied for licenses for TV channels could soon be airing their programmes,” the secretary said.
He said applications forwarded by the Dawn Group of Newspapers, Nation and Nawa-e-Waqt Group of Newspapers, Khabrain Group of Newspapers and Express Group of Newspapers were pending with Pemra as the law was promulgated only recently.
The secretary said applications for no objection certificates (NOCs) had already been taken up for necessary consideration and might soon be confirmed.
“The government, however, expects strong adherence to code of conduct on part of both print and electronic media,” Syed Anwar Mehmood said adding that there was also need for self-regulatory role by the media. Regarding the issue related to Aaj Television, the Secretary said, he personally approached the owners, who admitted that no request was forwarded to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for extension in the international link-up facility and that it was simply assumed that Pemra would do it on its own.
“I advised them to fax a request to me and on receiving it, the necessary assistance was provided within an hour’s time,” said the Secretary Information and Broadcasting. Answering a query, he said that in the original draft of Pemra an attempt was made to ensure that wider groups might be involved in the media, with no single group allowed to hold ownership of more than one channel or publication.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:4/27/2007
