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Pakistan media protests curbs

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: Journalists on Monday protested Government action against a television channel for its coverage of the ongoing judicial crisis.

Aaj TV received a notice from the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) on Sunday to explain its news coverage. Its chief executive was given three days to respond but the channel found itself off the cable network for most of Monday.

The immediate provocation for the notice to Aaj appears to be its live coverage of the ousted Chief Justice Ifthikar Chaudhary's address to the Peshawar Bar Association last Saturday.

PEMRA has also reportedly warned other private TV channels not to air programmes casting aspersions on the judiciary and the "integrity of the armed forces of Pakistan", besides airing content that may encourage or incite violence, or promote anti-national or anti-state sentiments, and was inimical to the maintenance of law and order.

Attack on press freedom

Journalists' organisation condemned the move as an attack on press freedom, and in the National Assembly, which reconvened for the first time after the outbreak of the judicial crisis, reporters staged a walk-out in protest.

The issue added to the heated debate in the National Assembly over an Opposition demand that the ouster of the Chief Justice must be debated in Parliament, while ruling party members said it could not be discussed as the matter was sub judice. This is the second time that PEMRA has issued notice to a private TV channel since the March 9 ouster of the Chief Justice. Last month, policemen attacked the offices of GEO TV when the channel continued showing a programme that PEMRA directed it to pull off the air.

The attack, captured on camera by Geo and seen by worldwide audiences, forced President Pervez Musharraf to apologise to the channel and reiterate his Government's commitment to the freedom of the press.

It is the claim of the Musharraf regime that it has given the Pakistan media unprecedented freedom. Several journalists in the capital also participated in a vigil for Alan Johnston, the BBC journalist who has been missing for six weeks after his abduction by unidentified gunmen in Gaza.

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