ISLAMABAD: An authority for monitoring and promoting children related content and policies for electronic media will be established soon, according to Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage, Marriyum Aurangzeb.

Talking to Dawn, Ms Aurangzeb said that information ministry has started working on legislation for establishing such an authority, which will likely be named the Children Entertainment Authority.

She said a similar authority was established in India some time ago and that there is no proper organisation for monitoring or promoting content for the education and entertainment of children.

“There would be special programs on state-run television channels when we were children such as the program called Iqra and there was no match for Sohail Rana’s program [Kaliyon Ka Mala, to Sung Sung Chalian],” she said, adding that back then, some commercials were also censored if they were thought to effect children mentally.

The minister said that the government has also decided to dedicate one of Pakistan Television Corporation’s channels for children’s programmes.

The Senate Standing Committee on Information recently expressed dissatisfaction with concerned authorities for not promoting children friendly content on electronic media.

Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority Chairman Absar Alam had told the committee that Pakistani media houses were not interested in getting licenses for children’s channels.

He said that some international channels had gotten in touch with the regulatory authority for getting landing rights for children’s channels in Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2017