The federal government has no intention to curb the electronic media, Federal Information Minister Dr Firdous Aashiq Awan said on Monday. Addressing a press conference at Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) Office, the minister said that the federal government strongly believed in freedom of expression. She said that the new laws, which PEMRA was proposing were not against the freedom of media. Justifying the need for a new policy, Firdous said that regulations needed to be updated to reflect the change in needs. She said that the existing policy was devised in 2002, when there was no satellite channel in the country.
“Now 89 local and 26 foreign channels are operating in the country. The government believed that old policy needed to be upgraded,” she said. The minister said that salient feature of the policy will be protection of Pakistan’s socio-cultural, religious values, forge unity among the four provinces, including AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan and supremacy of national interests.
‘No intention to curb electronic media’
