Govt proposes new body to regulate media

ISLAMABAD: Federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Ch Fawad Hussain has said that social media will be regulated under the proposed media laws. The minister was speaking at a rare joint meeting of the Senate and National Assembly Standing Committees on Information and Broadcasting held under the chairmanship of Senator Faisal Javed and MNA Nasir Khan Musazai at the conference hall of Pak-China Friendship Centre here.

Fawad said that media in Pakistan was regulated by seven bodies --- Pemra, Press Council Pakistan, Pakistan Telecom Authority, Censor Board, Press Registrar's Office, ABC and ITNE. “Digital media was nowhere to be regulated. Under this proposed legal framework, all the laws of media regulation are being scrapped. New legislation is being framed in consultation with all the stakeholders to make matters as transparent as possible,” he said.

The meeting took a bumpy start, as PPP Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar rose to point out that the entire opposition including PMLN did not attend the meeting and that they would stage a walkout for not fulfilling legal formalities to convene the meet.

He said that a prior permission had to be sought from the Senate chairman and NA Speaker for a standing committee meeting outside the Parliament House. He also noted that no representative of the NA Secretariat was present in the meeting.

To this, Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting chairman Senator Faisal Javed showed him a copy of a document regarding permission from the Senate chairman in this regard. The information minister said MNA Marriyum Aurangzeb had asked for this important meeting and she should have attended it.

However, PPP Senators walked out of the meeting. In the joint meeting of the standing committees, the minister briefed the participants on the proposed Pakistan Media Development Authority (PMDA). “Seven bodies are playing their role in regulating media but there are flaws. An effective legislation is being made by bringing all of them together. A detailed consultation has been held with all the stakeholders,” he said.

Fawad said: “There are 42 journalism schools in the country. Since Pemra creation, not a single rupee has been spent on development and there are many problems with social media and privacy is the biggest one. Children's videos are made and shared. It is very important to regulate social media.”

He said that media regulatory authorities of four countries have been studied for the establishment of this authority. He said Pakistan Media Development Authority will have a chairman and 12 members, out of which six will be technical experts from the private sector.

The authority, he continued, will have five directorates --- film and digital media, electronic media, print media, media literacy and administration /finance. There will be a Media Complaints Commission which will have five members. There will also be a media tribunal consisting of 10 members chaired by a judge of superior court. There will be two members from each province and Islamabad will have one member.

He claimed that the PMDA had been formed in consultation with all stakeholders, including CPNE, APNS, PBA, media organisations, Pemra and others. Senator Faisal Javed said that the minister has given a detailed briefing on the media authority and when it is referred to the standing committee from the Upper House, it would be reviewed in detail in consultation with all the members of the committee.

Senators Syed Ali Zafar, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Anwar Lal Din, MNAs Muhammad Akram Cheema, Aftab Jahangir and Saima Nadeem besides Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farah Habib, Information and Broadcasting Secretary Shehira Shahid and other senior officials attended.