Govt not in favour of curbs on media: Marriyum Aurangzeb

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb Wednesday held out an assurance to the Senate committee concerned that the government is not in favour of any restrictions on the media and that now no channel will be closed, no programme will be put off air and no newspaper will be shut. 

“We strongly believe in the freedom of expression. However, the country needs practical steps to eradicate fake news,” the minister contended.

The meeting was attended by the minister, members of the committee, Senators Aun Abbas Bapi, Tahir Bizenjo and Irfan Siddiqui and officials of the Ministry of Information. The forum congratulated Marriyum Aurangzeb on assuming the charge as federal minister for information and broadcasting. PTI Senator and the committee chairman Faisal Javed presided over the meeting here.

“Fake news is spread regarding Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's visit to Saudi Arabia. Shehbaz Sharif, as Punjab chief minister, also bore the expense of all his foreign trips. PM Shehbaz Sharif's visit to Saudi Arabia is also on personal expense and those who will accompany him are also going on personal expense,” she noted.

She explained whenever a prime minister leaves the country, the Foreign Office writes a letter for a plane to be kept standby and this has been happening even under former prime minister Imran Khan. During the PM's visit to Saudi Arabia, she pointed out, the number of members of the delegation is much less than all previous visits, as the prime minister's delegation will consist of only 13 members.

In the meeting, the Pemra chairman gave a briefing on the issues related to the closure of transmission of various TV channels and issuance of notices by the Authority. He noted that Pemra has not issued any instructions to close any channel and that a private TV channel’s broadcasts were not stopped on PTCL Smart TV.

“On the day news came that a private TV channel’s broadcasts on PTCL were stopped, PTCL officials were contacted at the same time and it was found out that its broadcasts were not stopped anywhere. The news channel’s management has been asked about the names of the cable operators who stopped broadcasting the channel but no proof has been provided so far,” the Pemra chairman said. He contended that the TV channel should provide evidence and action will be taken in this regard. “I checked at the same time, TV channel’s broadcasts were also coming on cable at my house, channel broadcasts were running everywhere,” he said. To this, the committee directed the TV channel to submit report on areas where broadcasting was stopped.

The chairman asked, “Did the channels run fake news?” He asked if information minister’s statement was correct and said check on freedom of the media would not be tolerated. He claimed due to the media and public pressure, the number of people for Saudi Arabia visit was reduced. He wanted to know how much government money was spent on private foreign trips. All details should be shared with the committee.

To this, PMLN Senator Irfan Siddiqui suggested that this might include also the internal trips and those on helicopters, besides the foreign trips. “You should take it easy, we can understand as your wounds are still fresh,” quipped the PMLN senator when the committee chairman asked what happened to state-run TV after the inception of new government and recalled, “How, during previous PPP rule, Imran’s images and clips were not shown on the state-run TV." And again to this, Senator Siddiqui contended that they had seen enough of his images and the World Cup photos during these four years on state-run TV. “Who made how many personal visits?” the committee head asked.

Details of Imran Khan's personal visits at government expense should be provided to the committee. The details should be provided to the committee how helicopters were used to carry personal food and tea. The Standing Committee was also given a detailed briefing on the structure and affairs of the Internal Publicity Wing (IP Wing) of the Ministry of Information.