Friday, August 19, 2011

PEMRA warns TV channels on content violations

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) on Thursday issued a warning to TV channels, including Royal TV, Play TV, OYE TV, Oxygen TV and Indus Music, who despite repeated instructions and advices were flouting their content provisions without regarding their respective licence categories.

As per the terms and conditions of the licence, foreign content can only take up 10 percent of a channel’s total broadcast, which constitutes a maximum duration of two hours and forty minutes in the total broadcast of 24 hours. Whereas, some channels, for example, Play TV, OYE and Oxygen were observed airing excessive foreign content on their channels, which is beyond the permissible limit and that sometimes contained vulgar and indecent content.

Similarly, Royal TV has been granted a licence for the entertainment category, but the channel has been persistently airing news and current affairs programme in sheer disregard of its licence category. The channels have been issued reasonable notices/warnings in the past but no visible compliance had been witnessed on their part.

The authority in its last meeting that took place on July 26 had taken serious notice of such violations and had decided to impose a fine of Rs 1 million on all TV channels involved in the repeated violations.

PEMRA has given a final deadline of 30 days to the above-mentioned channels to correct their content as per the mandate of their respective licence. If they fail to do so the authority shall be initiating action against the violators as per the law, which may lead to revocation of licences.

 

Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk

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