KARACHI, Oct 12: A public hearing for granting licences for satellite television channels and FM radio stations was held on Tuesday at Pemra's regional office.

The General Manager, Licensing, Syed Fayyaz Hussain Shah, chaired the meeting which was also attended by Regional General Manager (Sindh) Wasim Ahmed and head of media Muhammad Salim, Pemra officials, stakeholders, representatives from the public as well as media persons.

Elaborating the purpose of the hearing, Fayyaz said that Pemra had adopted a very transparent and fair system of awarding the licences. He said that Pemra did not believe in pre-censorship, but it had provided broad outlines to licensees in the form of code of conduct for self-regulation.

The GM licensing informed that amendments in the Pemra ordinance had been tabled in the National Assembly. "If these amendments are passed by the parliament, the newspaper owners who have applied for broadcast licences will also become eligible for a license."

He said three public hearings had already been held in Islamabad, Peshawar and Lahore. Fayyaz informed that the total satellite TV channels' applicants were 34, out of which 24 were related to the cross-media clause, while five of the total 21 FM radio applicants were universities. He appealed to the cable operators to relay modest channels and at least observe sanctity of the holy month of Ramazan. - APP