KARACHI: Govt insists news channels were misleading nation
Karachi, Nov 10: Adviser to the Chief Minster on Information and Archives Maj (r) Hamid Hussain Abdi has alleged the banned news channel were misleading the nation, and insisted that the action against them is justified.
Addressing a press conference in his office on Saturday, he said that after negotiations with the government some of the TV channels were allowed to resume their transmissions, adding that “aggressive TV news channels will not be allowed to resume their transmission unless they agree to follow the code of conduct.” He said that there was no change in the attitude of these defiant channels even after the imposition of the ban.
In reply to a question as to why foreign news channels like CNN were taken off the air, the adviser said they too were telecasting the footage of channels like Geo and ARY OneWorld. He maintained that in the civilised world, TV channels refrained from telecasting images of bodies and limbs, but certain Pakistani news channels were not adhering to the norms.
He said that the government was ready to negotiate with the managements of TV channels on the issue, and pointed out that some of them held talks with the Sindh governor and got permission to resume their transmissions.
The adviser also denied reports of a raid on the printing press of Daily Awam in Karachi, and said that if the government wanted to seal it off, it could do so anytime as the newspaper had shifted its printing press from Chundrigar Road to Sultanabad without obtaining official permission.
He said that some TV channels deserved to be banned but the action should not be regarded as a ban on the Press, hence the protest in this regard was regrettable.—PPI
