- Top media group reportedly pressed PBA president to reverse his decision
- Siddiqui says meeting has been postponed as PBA chief showed reservations over the committee’s decisions
The government’s efforts to revise the code of conduct for the media suffered a blow on Monday after the committee formed in this regard postponed its meeting as the Pakistan Broadcasting Association (PBA) president backtracked from his previous decision on supporting the formation of a media complaint commission (MCC), Pakistan Today has learnt.
Sources said that the PBA chief had agreed to support the MCC in a meeting held in Karachi on May 13. They said that a major media group has opposed the initiative and had now also pressed the PBA chief to reverse his decision.
Irfan Siddiqui, head of the committee, confirmed that the meeting had been postponed as the PBA chief had expressed his reservations over the committee’s decisions.
“But this does not mean that the initiative has suffered a jolt. We have invited the PBA delegation to meet the committee on Wednesday in the federal capital,” he said, adding that the body would try to remove the PBA head’s reservations.
“Since the PBA wanted to put their stance separately, we have asked them to meet us in absence of the print media representatives,” Siddiqui said.
A source said that Qazi Aslam, the newly appointed general secretary of the PBA, threw the spanner in the works when he expressed concerns that the proposed commission could be used as a gagging tool against the media anytime. He also questioned the locus standi of APNS and CPNE, representative bodies of the print media in deciding a code of conduct for the electronic media.
In its first sitting, the committee had unanimously agreed to take away the function of implementation of code of conduct from the Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA).
“The primary responsibility of the commission will be to listen to the complaints of any aggrieved citizen, media organization and government. The commission will also have suo motu powers against violation of code of conduct. The commission will be authorised to award following punishments to the violators,” a document said.
It was also agreed that the appellant authority against the decision of the MCC will be the Supreme Court. The committee agreed that the proposed MCC will be headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court. A panel of three retired judges will be jointly proposed by the PBA, APNS and CPNE in consultation with the government to appoint the MCC head. The president will take the final decision regarding selection of the MCC chairman.
The MCC will include two PBA nominees, one nominee each from APNS, CPNE, academia, civil society.
The committee also recommended enactment of Right to Information Bill at federal level; enactment of new laws about social media/cyber crime law to meet the new requirements.
The committee was formed to devise an effective implementation mechanism with revised composition of the complaints commission. The meeting was attended by Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors (CPNE) President Mujibur Rehman Shami, All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) President Hameed Haroon, Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) head Shakeel Masood and Law Ministry Secretary Zafrullah Khan.
The committee considered various aspects of existing code of conduct and the procedural difficulties of implementation under the existing laws.
Haroon pointed out irregularities in the code of conduct. In the code of conduct for print media under the Press Council of Pakistan Ordinance 2002, there is no maximum punishment of cancellation of declaration of any newspaper/periodical, he said, adding that under PEMRA Ordinance 2002, as amended by PEMRA Act 2007, there was a provision to suspend and cancel the licence.
He suggested that there was an urgent need to enact Right to Information Bill at federal level as it has been done in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The committee endorsed the proposal.
Earlier, the PBA president proposed that the committee may choose PBA Secretary General Qazi Aslam as its member. Shakeel Masood, the PBA president also belongs to the same media organization as the chief executive officer. The proposal was unanimously accepted.