News channels on the Pakistani networks GEO TV and ARY Digital were ordered by authorities to halt transmission Friday from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after they refused to sign a Pakistani government-mandated “code of conduct.”
GEO TV was ordered by the UAE Information Ministry in Dubai to cease satellite and Internet broadcasts by midnight local time on Friday, according to Sami Abraham, senior correspondent and producer of GEO TV in New York. ARY Digital received a similar order with no reason given for the shut down, according to ARY news director Mohsin Raza.
“We are surprised that the authorities in Dubai, which is developing as a regional free trade and communications hub, would prevent such satellite transmissions,” said Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Executive Director Joel Simon. “We call on Pakistani and UAE authorities to reverse this order immediately and allow private TV networks to report on the important developments taking place in Pakistan without being subject to stifling official restrictions.”
GEO TV and ARY Digital were the only networks that had not returned to cable distribution in Pakistan since the shut down of all private broadcasters on November 3 after President Pervez Musharraf suspended the country’s constitution. The news channels had remained accessible in Pakistan via Internet or satellite before today’s blackout.
Networks in the country had been told to sign the 14-page code of conduct by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) that if they wanted to resume transmission in the wake of recent political turmoil in Pakistan. GEO TV and ARY Digital refused to sign. The agreement bypasses due process if stations violate government regulations.
The government’s “code of conduct” agreement is a re-writing of voluntary self-governing regulations drawn up in June by the Pakistan Broadcasters Association, said Mazhar Abbas, secretary-general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists.
According to Abbas, who has a copy of the document, the new rules do away with due process for violating government regulations and hold all owners and partners of media companies responsible for any violations of the new restrictions. It also holds broadcast journalists responsible for their stations’ violations. The union was not consulted on the regulations by either the government or the broadcasters, Abbas said.
On Thursday cable TV operators resumed distribution of the television channels Aaj TV and Dawn TV and two foreign news channels, BBC and CNN.
“The government’s blackmailing of Pakistan’s TV stations, banned since 3 November, is unacceptable,” Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. “The authorities have asked TV executives to eliminate outspoken programmes, sideline the most independent journalists and sign a code of conduct requiring self-censorship.”
RSF said, “We are pleased for Pakistani viewers, who were desperate for news information, but we continue to demand the unconditional return of all the TV stations. We also condemn yesterday’s arrests of three journalists, two in Quetta and one near Peshawar.”
Aaj TV’s news editor confirmed to RSF that the government told cable operators they could resume distributing its programming after it had dropped two talk shows “Live With Talat” and “Bolta Pakistan.” Cable operators were also allowed to restore distribution of the recently-launched Dawn News.
BBC and CNN, which had been censored, like the Pakistani news TV stations, were also once again available to the millions of Pakistani homes that have cable.
ARY TV and Geo TV, on the other hand, are still banned. ARY TV journalists said the government was demanding the elimination of talk shows presented by hosts Kashif Abbas and Asthma Shirazi as a precondition for allowing the station back on the air. Both Geo TV and ARY TV reportedly refused to give assurances that they would not broadcast comments critical of the government.
Journalists Hamid Mir and Shahid Masood of Geo TV have been singled out for criticism by the authorities. Several sources said government members were pressuring TV station owners to give a commitment to get their employees to adopt a code of conduct drafted by the government that requires self-censorship on political matters.
Abdul Sattar Kakar of ARY TV and Jamal Tharkai of the newspaper Awam were meanwhile arrested by police Wednesday in Quetta while taking part in protest against media censorship, while Aaj TV correspondent Nadem Khattak, who was already arrested on 3 November, was arrested again in the northwestern district of Lakki Marwat while covering an opposition demonstration. The security forces took his camera.
