The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has issued a final warning to all cable operators in the country to immediately stop distributing TV channels which are otherwise illegal or proscribed by the authority. According to a press release issued here on Saturday, the Pemra warned that no channel other than a Pemra license-holder would be let distributed on cable TV networks.
It further warned that action against violation of rules would pave way for Pemra license-holder channels on distribution networks which were hitherto being ignored as most of space was presently occupied by the unauthorised foreign channels thus leaving no space for license-holder channels on distribution networks.
The statement said the Pemra had issued a list of eligible channels containing 89 Pakistani channels and 26 foreign channels registered with the authority. The cable operators have, however, the liberty to choose channels from amongst the eligible list while putting in front the subscriber’s choice but no channel other than the permissible list of Pemra would be allowed. Besides, the cable operators are also bound to relay national broadcaster (PTV) channels which are mandatory under the PEMRA law. In this recent bid, the statement added, the Pemra enforcement team started raiding number of cable TV operators across the country and all those found violating Pemra orders faced severe consequences. The Pemra resolved that such actions would continue till the sanity creep into the electronic media. The Pemra says that media freedom must be coupled with social responsibility, ethics and generally accepted standards of decency and morality. The freedom does not constitute unbridled freedom putting the repute of nation and institutions at stake, it added.
