ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday issued a contempt of court notice to Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) Chairman Saleem Baig for “using the court’s name without prior permission or context as means of persuasion to enforce strict guidelines on media houses and anchors”.
The notice was issued by IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah who was presiding over a hearing of a contempt of court case against media houses who had “transgressed legal boundaries to discuss sub-judice matters” in television programmes.
During the proceedings, Justice Minallah remarked that misusing the court’s name will not be tolerated and those found guilty would be punished.
Last week, the media regulatory body had directed the anchors hosting regular shows not to appear as “experts” in talk shows on their own or other channels. In addition, media houses were advised to select the guests in talk shows with the “utmost care and keeping in view their knowledge and expertise in a particular subject”.
“As per the PEMRA code of conduct, the role of anchors is to moderate the programs in an objective, unbiased and impartial manner, excluding themselves from the personal opinions, biases, and judgments on any issue. Therefore, anchors hosting regular shows should not appear in TV shows whether own or other channels as subject matter experts,” it had said.
During Tuesday’s hearing, IHC directed the PEMRA representative to provide a transcript of all the programs in question who had “gone against the law and stepped over legal boundaries”.
The court said that such conjecture brought a bad name to the court’s esteem and gave way to unneeded hearsay which could be damaging to court proceedings and adversely affect on-going cases.
