It has come to PEMRA’s notice by monitoring that the private TV channel Geo News in its programme ‘Jirga’ which is hosted by journalist Saleem Safi was going to broadcast the interview of Ehsan Ullah Ehsan on Thursday. This is a clear violation of PEMRA’s directives that it had issued under the National Action Plan and Section 3(3) of Electronic Media Code of Conduct, 2015.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is a terrorist organization and Ehsan Ullah Ehsan has been a spokesperson of this terrorist outfit. During the last several years, he has taken responsibility of mass murder of Pakistani nationals through terrorist activities across the country. Thousands of children, men, women and civil and military officials lost their lives due to the heinous crimes of his terrorist organization. It is quite heart-wrenching and deeply disturbing for the loved ones of those martyred in terrorist acts to see the member of a terrorist outfit appearing on TV screens in any capacity/mode, a known militant who earlier would claim responsibility for acts of massacre.
Ever since the promo of the interview of Ehsan Ullah Ehsan was aired on Geo News, PEMRA received a number of complaints through WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook, Twitter and PEMRA’s call center. The complainants expressed their anger asking upon PEMRA to stop airing of the programme. Before the situation got worse, PEMRA through an order has prohibited Geo TV from airing the interview of Ehsan Ullah Ehsan in the said programme ‘Jirga’ as well as its promo.
As per PEMRA’s Rules and Code of Conduct (CoC) 2015, glorification of terrorists cannot be allowed except the confessional statement which has already been released by the investigative agency. Even in that statement, only the selected parts are allowed to be aired which do not, in any manner, glorify a terrorist and his terrorist setup. In case of non-compliance of PEMRA’s decision, strict action will be taken against the violators under Sections 29 and 30 of PEMRA Ordinance 2002 as amended by PEMRA Act 2007.