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| June 3, 2005 | Friday | Rabi-us-Sani 25, 1426 |
Experts for changes in Pemra Bill
ISLAMABAD, June 2: Participants at a discussion termed the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) Amendment Bill a tool in the hands of the government to curb media freedom and called for drastic changes in the proposed law.
The speakers, including legislators and representatives of media and civil society, criticized the government for giving absolute powers to Pemra through the bill and passing it in the National Assembly without holding a proper debate on it.
The participants at the discussion, organized by Parliamentarians Commission for Human Rights (PCHR) in collaboration with Internews and the USAID here on Thursday, were of the view that press freedom in Pakistan had been threatened after passage of the Pemra bill by the National Assembly.
They said the bill had now been transmitted to the Senate and it was likely to be referred to the Senate standing committee on cabinet, as Pemra had now been placed under the cabinet division. They asked the senators present in the programme to make a commitment that they would invite all stakeholders, including broadcasters, journalist bodies, civil society and media experts, to seek their views before making any decision on the bill.
They regretted that the National Assembly standing committee on information and broadcasting and Pemra did not invite stakeholders for their views before approving the bill. He said the bill was not circulated and it was even today not available on Pemra’s website.
They said the proposed bill sought to reduce the provinces of their legally vested role in the issuance, suspension or revocation of private broadcast licensing. The words “shall invite” comments from provinces is being proposed to be amended as “may invite” comments from provinces, he said while referring to an amendment.
Besides, the proposed amendments empowered local police to arrest without warrant any radio or TV broadcaster either on instructions from authority official or on their own after accusing him of “repeat violation” of any provisions of the Pemra Ordinance, they added.
They suggested that media bodies, civil society organizations and specially those persons holding Pride of Performance in media-related fields be given Pemra board membership and there should be an inhouse election of the chairman. He also called for changing the name of Pemra from authority to commission.
They said Pemra amendments did not distinguish between professional broadcasters and cable operators and suggested equally harsh treatment for both in the shape of fines up to Rs10 million and imprisonment up to three years.
Asif Khan, who represented Pemra in the discussion, was in hot waters as he had to face severe criticism from all the directions. He was unable to give satisfactory replies to most of the questions put before him by the participants. People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) Senator Sardar Latif Khosa particularly gave him a tough time.
However, he defended the amendments giving powers to police saying the cable operators were not taking Pemra’s directives seriously. He also could not explain the Pemra’s criterion for declaring any programme “obscene and vulgar.” He said the law provides that any person could challenge the decision of Pemra in the court of law.
PPP Senator Sardar Latif Khosa said police had been dragged into implementation of Pemra laws perhaps because of the fact that the authority’s present chairman was a former police officer.
Another PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said the opposition would not allow the treasury benches to bulldoze the bill in the Senate. He also suggested that the bill should be referred to the standing committee on information instead of cabinet.
Adviser to Internews on law, media and policy Matiuallah Jan gave a detailed presentation on the bill and conducted the proceedings of the discussion.
PPP moves amendments: People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar has moved a number of amendments to the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill 2005 to loosen the stranglehold of the government on electronic media.
One of the amendments, moved by Senator Babar, has proposed that the bill be circulated among the public for eliciting opinion of various stakeholders, particularly the proprietors of TV channels, cable operators and radio stations.
Another amendment seeks to reduce the number of Pemra members to eight and removal of CBR chairman and interior secretary as the two ex-officio members.
The senator also sought amendment to the clause dealing with Pemra’s powers to shutdown a broadcasting house for airing programmes that contained pornography, obscenity or other material offensive to commonly accepted standards of decency.
The mover has argued that the words “material offensive to commonly accepted standards of decency” was too vague, generalized and vested the authority with vast powers to close a broadcast station on whimsical grounds.
Mr Babar has proposed that while Pemra may have powers to take action for pornography and obscenity it should have no blanket powers to close down a station for airing “material offensive to commonly accepted standards of decency”.
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