Sunday, January 29, 2012

PEMRA warns channel of exerting moral policing

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: PEMRA has issued a show-cause notice to Samaa TV channel over its January 17 programme that triggered criticism from across the county. Anchor Maya Khan had hosted the controversial morning show.
PEMRA issued the notice under Section 26 of PEMRA Act. It also summoned channel’s official concerned to appear before PEMRA’s Council of Complaints on February 6.
Taking serious notice of “creeping unacceptable practices of moral policing” by some TV channels, PEMRA also warned them to abstain from indulging in “unethical journalistic practices whereby any act of the reporter, electronic media journalist, anchor or the TV channel as a whole be assumed in dis-conformity to generally accepted standards of decency, morality and ethics”. “Under the guise of investigative journalism, some TV channels have gone overboard and have literally intruded public privacy, which is not acceptable at all. No mature media demonstrate such acts, which unfortunately is the case in Pakistan,” said PEMRA in a press statement.
Referring to the programme on Samaa TV, PEMRA raised concern the glaring irony of negative/notorious investigative journalism under whose garb some channels have been flouting all social norms. “PEMRA has been receiving a number of complaints on a daily basis from public, who vociferously condemn such acts of media reporting. Only since the airing of Samaa TV programme two weeks ago, PEMRA on its call centre (0800-73672) has received 345 complaints. In response, PEMRA has issued a show-cause notice to the channel ... and the channel under Section 26 of the PEMRA Act is also summoned to appear before the Council of Complaints on February 6.”
PEMRA, while warning the channel, said that it is in “consensual interest that the electronic media must behave responsibly and do not sensationalise while reporting the issues relating to one’s privacy, solitude and or ordeals e.g, rapes, murders, assaults, kidnappings, robberies, thefts, etc. This kind of reporting is in sheer violation of Section 20 (b) (c) & (f) of PEMRA Act 2007 read with Rule 15 (1) of PEMRA Rules 2009 and clauses (b), (c), (h), (i) & (l) of PEMRA Code of Conduct and the license terms and conditions. It is unfortunate that channels while not realising the social impact of such reporting, are only inclined to enhance their ratings which is reprehensible”. PEMRA said that electronic media must exhibit maturity and understand what is desirable or not. “PEMRA has always upheld its stance on self-regulation and has always been proponent of free, fair and unprejudiced media,” the statement said.

Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk

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