ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) on Friday clarified that it had issued a warning to three entertainment television channels, not for morality policing, but for the telecast of indecent content in blatant violation of PEMRA code of conduct rules.
Senator Sherry Rehman and a senior journalist Zahid Hussain in their tweets had said, that warning to “ARY Communications”, “Hum TV” and “Geo Entertainment,” were issued for, perhaps, wearing certain dresses and for “indecent” material.
Sherry Rehman opined that PEMRA wants to become “morality police,” a press release said.
PEMRA clarified that the warning was issued to the above-mentioned TV channels for violating various clauses of PEMRA Ordinance and Code of Conduct 2015.
ARY Communications was warned for violating 3(1) (e) of Code of Conduct that prohibits content which is indecent, obscene or pornographic.
Hum TV violated Article 20 of the PEMRA Ordinance. It also violated clauses 3 (1) (e), 12, 13 (2) and 17 of Code of Conduct 2015 which say: “No content is aired which contains anything indecent, obscene or pornographic or is presented in a manner which may be disturbing or distressing to children or against commonly accepted social values or is vulgar or abusive”.
Geo Entertainment was warned for violating clauses 3(1) (a), 3 (1) (m), 12, 13 & 17 of Electronic Media Code of Conduct 2015.
According to 3(1) (m) of the Code of Conduct, no content can be aired which depicts behaviour such as smoking, alcohol consumption, narcotics and drug abuse.
To keep the record straight, the visuals are being posted on PEMRA’s official Twitter account.
“Senator Sherry Rehman and others who think that PEMRA has become a ‘morality police’ may kindly let PEMRA know if these visuals are appropriate in our society to be shown on TV screen which is watched by the entire family,” PEMRA said.
