Pakistan has banned a leading prime-time television programme because of negative coverage of President Pervez Musharraf’s fight with Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, news reports have said.
State-controlled Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) ordered the management of the Geo TV network Thursday night to stop airing its popular news programme Aaj Kamran Khan Key Saath with immediate effect, a spokesman of Geo News said Friday.
As per the order, Geo News aired an apology to its viewers at 2300 hrs PST on Thursday night, the scheduled time for the show hosted by Karachi-based Kamran Khan, explaining the government order that led to the banning of the show. “As per the government order we have stopped the show and informed our viewers about the position explaining the government position,†a spokesman said.
The government fired Chaudhry and placed him under house arrest for abuse of authority on March 9 because of rulings he had issued on cases of political activists who disappeared while in custody.
Khan, when contacted by the Press Trust of India (PTI), said he was surprised that the government had taken such a desperate measure. “I never knew that the government would act like this and lose patience so soon with free flow of information.â€
The Pakistani government came in for scathing criticism during the last few of Khan’s shows on the issue of the suspension of the Chief Justice with participants lambasting the government.
Khan said he never had any other agenda other than providing people the most accurate and objective analysis on an “important turning point†for the country. “This programme was very much within the framework of the law and had no illegal contents,†he said.
The police Friday raided the Islamabad office of Geo TV, firing tear gas shells and beating staff — an action that drew an immediate condemnation from Pakistan’s information minister, the Associated Pres (AP) reported.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) accused Musharraf of rolling back press freedom. “Under increasing political pressure at home and abroad, the Musharraf government is resorting to heavy-handed tactics in dealing with critics and the independent media,†CPJ Asia programme coordinator Bob Dietz said in a statement. Dietz called on Musharraf to “live up to his stated commitment to freedom of the press and stop what appears to be retaliation against Geo TV for critical coverage.â€
“We fear that, in this presidential election year, the independence of the media is going to be under attack from the government,†Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. “President Pervez Musharraf must immediately stop this kind of authoritarian intervention, which jeopardises the freedom of Pakistani journalists to decide what they cover and how they cover it. Under no circumstances should they be used as propaganda tools.â€
During Geo’s live coverage of unrest Friday that coincided with Chaudhry’s second appearance in the Supreme Court to answer the case against him, police tracking protesters barged into the building housing the TV network, the AP report said.
“Police have attacked our office, they are breaking windows. They are beating our staff. They have used tear gas shells. Even our female staff have been hurt. They are damaging our building,†Geo’s Islamabad bureau chief Hamid Mir said on air. Video broadcast on Geo showed police with helmets, riot shields and batons kicking in windows and damaging property.
Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani, who was at the Geo building at the time, quickly condemned the police action but said all the staff inside were safe. “I condemn this incident. There was no justification for it. Action will be taken against those responsible. Police should not have done it,†he said.
