Pak channels penalised for slandering judiciary

Three Pakistani TV channels have been penalised by the country's electronic media watchdog which suspended the licences of the two and fined the third one for slandering the judiciary.
Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) yesterday suspended licences of Din News and Neo TV and fined them Rs 1 million each for levelling "baseless allegations" against a Supreme Court judge.
It also imposed Rs 1 million fine on Sach TV for airing remarks of caller Ali Nawaz.
The regulator said that three TV channels were issued notices on November 19 for airing irresponsible analysis and were asked to submit a reply on November 26 after appearance before PEMRA.

On November 26, the reply was submitted and representatives of channels failed to defend themselves.
"After hearing the viewpoint of the three TV channels, PEMRA suspended the licence of Din news channel for 30 days and imposed a fine of Rs 1 million. A similar decision was given for Neo TV. However, its licence was suspended for seven days. PEMRA imposed a fine of Rs 1 million on Sach TV and asked the channel to pay the amount within 15 days," it said.
PEMRA has adopted aggressive policy to implement the code of conduct which every owner agrees to abide by while applying for the licence of the TV Channel.

Earlier, the authority banned illegal DTH services and went ahead to auction three DTH licences despite countrywide protest by cable operators.