The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has postponed the meeting scheduled to discuss the Geo News issues for an indefinite period.
The meeting was due to deliberate upon the opinion from Law Ministry over the complaint filed by Defence Ministry on the issue of Geo News.
However, PEMRA member Israr Abbasi, while talking to a private TV channel, said that the meeting was called by PEMRA and it could not be cancelled by a single person. He said that meeting will be held according to the schedule. Abbasi added that the pressure from the government was immense and it appeared as if the government wanted to abolish PEMRA.
According to PEMRA sources, the Law Ministry has not yet submitted its opinion to the authority.
GEO GOING DOWN:
In the meanwhile, according to the UK’s Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB), Geo News has witnessed a loss of over 100,000 viewers in the past two weeks.
The channel, which usually sits behind ARY News in the UK ratings with a reach of an average 280,000, is now hovering below 200,000 viewers.
Surprisingly, at the time of the negative coverage, the channel dropped to 197,000 viewers and 174,000 respectively – lowest in months.
In comparison, Geo’s rival ARY News has added on viewership with the latest data (week ending May 4) showing the channel with a weekly reach of 391,000 viewers – making it the most watched Asian news channel in the UK.