Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry requested electronic media outlets “to not devote a lot of time for reporting crime news” because of its “negative impact on society”.
Further, he called for a curb on “breaking news culture” because “not every news is as important”.
The information minister said this as he shared a crime news report of different TV channels so far in 2019.
جب آپ اتنا زیادہ وقت کرائم کی خبروں کو دیں گے تو اس سے معاشرےپر کیا اثرات آئیں گے؟ میری میڈیا سے اپیل ہے اس پالیسی پر نظرثانی کریں ، ہر خبر کا بریکنگ ہونا اہم نہیں ہوتا۔ pic.twitter.com/wVKi5BrW4Q
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) January 23, 2019
However, the information minister was criticised by a journalist for suggesting “that crime happens because channels report such news – it’s quite clearly the other way round”.
Omar Quraishi, the former media consultant to Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, wrote that the highest crime coverage by any channel still forms a minuscule 7 per cent of air time, if not less.
The information minister’s tweet suggests that crime happens because channels report such news – it’s quite clearly the other way round
Furthermore, the highest coverage by any channel is still less than 7% of total airtime – others are even less than this percentage pic.twitter.com/6sNOUHvGP3
— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) January 23, 2019