ISLAMABAD: Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Federal Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb on Monday assured the Senate of an effective monitoring mechanism at Pakistan Electronic Media regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to check obscene, sectarian and immoral content.
Winding up discussion on a motion regarding content management by the PEMRA, the minister said she will personally review the content of objectionable advertisements and come back to the House with relevant information.
She said an appropriate strategy was in place to monitor the content though there was still a need for improving the Suo Moto mechanism and ‘in-house monitoring’ of the content to check any material that may promote sectarian violence and immorality.
The minister referred to different legal provisions including the Legal Framework Act 2007, PEMRA Council Rules, Electronic media Code of Conduct, Council of Complaints and other related provisions and said, the performance of PEMRA has improved over the period and actions were taken against the entities violating the laid down criteria.
Marriyum Aurangzeb said whenever the PEMRA finds any content in violation of the Code of Conduct or any complaint was received by the viewers in this regard, an immediate action was taken.
Mentioning to section 29 and 30 of the PEMRA Act, the minister said, most of the complaints were addressed but “we still have the room to further strengthen the Suo Moto mechanism and ‘in-house monitoring strategy”.
The minister said to ensure better content, the government also directed to constitute the Editorial Content Committees to an internal monitoring system within the electronic media organisations.
“Editorial Content Committees have been made mandatory for all private sector channels and other media organisations. In such organisations where these committees were not active, they were asked to put this mechanism in place,” she added.
The minister further said then in line with the National Action Plan, a mechanism was evolved in the Information Ministry to monitor the electronic media, broadcasters and other related media and three meetings under this mechanism had been held at the ministry since last month.
She said the efforts of PEMRA has also raised awareness among people who complain about content that is in violation of the Code of Conduct and the Council of Complaints addresses these issues through necessary actions adding that even the members can complain any time when they see any obscene advertisements, or a program promoting sectarianism or immorality.
“The ministry and PEMRA were the way out to address these issues and improve the content ensuring that no programme or advertisement was telecasted that was against our norms and national interest”, She concluded.