Geo Entertainment has been fined with one-month suspension along with Rs10 million fine, while the license of ARY News is suspended for 15 days and a same fine amount imposed on it.

PEMRA suspended these licenses and imposed fine due to violation of rules, reportedly committed by Geo Entertainment and ARY News. According to PEMRA release, Geo Entertainment is suspended because of airing blasphemous content on its morning show.

The license of ARY News was suspended over complaints about malicious statements against the judiciary on one of its talk shows. This is the second suspension faced by Geo TV network as Geo News was earlier suspended for 15 days by PEMRA in an order issued on June 6, 2014.

Pakistan Press Foundation

Geo Entertainment has been slapped with a one month suspension along with a Rs10 million fine, while the license of ARY News will be suspended for 15 days and a similar fine imposed.

The notice by Pemra stated that the regulatory body took “serious notice of violations by Geo Entertainment and ARY News”.

It said that it had ordered the “immediate suspension of the license of Geo Entertainment for 30 days, and a Rs10 million fine”.

Similarly, it added that the authorities had decided to “immediately suspend ARY News for 15 days, and impose a fine of Rs 10 million.”

Pemra said that Geo Entertainment had its license suspended over airing blasphemous content on one of its shows.

ARY News was handed the license suspension over complaints that it had made slanderous statements against the judiciary on one of its shows.

This is the second suspension faced by a television channel owned by the Geo TV network. Geo News was previously suspended for 15 days by Pemra in an order issued on June 6, 2014.

In a message posted on social media Geo News said that it’s broadcast would be effectively restored at 12:AM on Saturday as it had completed its 15-day suspension period.

DAWN

The advice came when senior counsel Mohammad Akram Sheikh, representing Geo TV network, drew the attention of a three-judge bench to the registration of 45 FIRs in different parts of the country and a “hate campaign” launched against Geo TV and the Jang group.

“Why don’t you go to high courts… when the transfer jurisdiction vests with the high courts,” Justice Jawwad S, Khawaja said, adding that it was not a final order but “do take a look on this aspect”.

The court was hearing a petition moved by the Independent Media Corporation and which seeks an order that restrains TV channels from airing allegations against other channels.

Already at the centre of a controversy revolving around allegations of maligning the country’s most powerful spy agency, the operation of the Geo TV has been suspended by Pemra for 15 days.

The petition has been filed against the backdrop of the May 14 morning show “Utho Jago Pakistan” hosted by Dr Shaista Lodhi, which kick-started a campaign against Geo TV by rival media groups.

The petition has requested the Supreme Court to order police and the lower courts all over the country to submit in the apex court copies of criminal complaints, FIRs and 22A petitions containing allegations of blasphemy regarding the morning show.

The apex court has also been requested to issue directives for consolidation of all the FIRs registered in different parts of the country and stopping police from registering fresh ones.

The court asked the advocate generals of the four provinces to submit statements about the position taken by the provincial governments on the Geo petition, which would be taken up again on Wednesday next.

Akram Sheikh cited an example from the Indian Supreme Court which, in the 2013 Baba Ram Dev case, had ordered consolidation of some 200 FIRs on the basis of which the Delhi High Court quashed a case against renowned painter M.F. Hussain.

He had aroused the ire of Hindu extremists for what they perceived his controversial painting of “Bharat Mata” and faced a number of cases for hurting the sentiments of the majority of Indians.

The counsel said that as an editor of daily ‘Jang’ had been attacked and five vehicles of the media group burnt, it was difficult for it to pursue cases in different courts of the country.

DAWN

“The suspension of Geo TV is a serious attack on press freedom in Pakistan. It is the latest act in an organized campaign of harassment and intimidation targeting the network on account of its perceived bias against the military,” said Richard Bennett, Amnesty International’s Asia Director.

“The Pakistani authorities must immediately reverse this ban. If there are concerns about the content of Geo TV broadcasts, the authorities should address this in line with international human rights standards – not simply move to silence a critical voice.”

The governmental body Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) today ruled that the licenses of Geo TV be suspended for 15 days with immediate effect.

The ban is due to allegedly blasphemous content broadcast last month by Geo TV – part of the Jang Media Group – and its earlier accusations against a senior military intelligence official.

Geo TV has been locked in a stand-off with the Pakistan military, rival media houses and some political parties since one of its journalists, the news anchor Hamid Mir, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Karachi on 19 April.

The network accused the Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of being behind the attack, which the ISI has denied.

On 20 May some government officials attempted to pull Geo TV off the air over allegedly “anti-state” and “blasphemous” content, apparently under pressure from the military, but within hours the decision was overturned by PEMRA’s executive authorities until today’s order.

“The suspension of Geo TV sadly fits an all too familiar pattern in Pakistan. State authorities and other political actors use any means they can to silence critical reporting, from the use of anti-state and anti-religion provisions of the law to physical attacks and violence,” said Richard Bennett.

In a report released on 30 April, Amnesty International documented how media workers in Pakistan live under the constant threat of harassment, violence and killings from a range of state and non-state actors.

Several Jang Media Group journalists have told Amnesty International that they have received daily threats and harassment by unknown individuals by phone and in person.

Many said they dare not enter their offices or identify themselves as belonging to Geo TV or other Jang Media Group outlets for fear of being attacked.

“Pakistan’s vibrant media scene deserves better protection, and journalists must be able to carry out their legitimate work without fear or interference,” said Richard Bennett.

Amnesty International

The fatwa was prompted by an episode of the Geo Entertainment morning show ‘Utho Jago Pakistan’ aired a day earlier, which contained blasphemous content. The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) also issued a show cause notice to Geo TV on Thursday over the same issue.

While passing the decree, SIC scholars said that after targeting the country’s security institutions in a smear campaign, Geo TV had now started harming Islamic principles. This, they said, is the agenda of anti-Pakistan forces.

In the episode of the morning show in question, the host and the guests carried out untoward activities while a sacred hymn was being read out, the scholars said. The indecent attitude of the host and guests was totally inappropriate, they added.

Showing disrespect to holy figures is strictly forbidden, said the scholars. In this instance, they said, not even a hint of respect was shown towards them by the host and guests. This act of Geo TV has hurt the religious sentiments of millions of Muslims worldwide, the scholars added.

The SIC scholars said they and other citizens expected the media to nurture religious and ethical values instead of spreading vulgarity in the name of entertainment. They also pointed out it was the duty of the government to prevent such content from being broadcast.

Participating in programmes where religious personalities are disrespected is strictly forbidden, the scholars said. If the government fails to stop such programmes from being aired, it becomes the duty of citizens to boycott them, they added.

The scholars said Geo TV cannot be forgiven for its ‘indecent, inappropriate, anti-Pakistan’ behaviour and demanded that the network’s owners, administration and management be tried immediately for blasphemy.

The religious scholars who issued the fatwa against Geo TV included Sheikhul Hadees Allama, Muhammad Sharif Rizvi, Mufti Muhammad Saeed Rizvi, Mufti Muhammad Akbar Rizvi, Allama Hamid and Sarfaraz Qadri, among others.

Express Tribune

The answer was assumedly the responsibility of the then PPP government, which opted instead to let the issue slide and become the incoming PML-N’s headache. To its credit, the PML-N brought in the right person for the job — Information Technology Minister Anusha Rehman was among the most vocal and progressive voices in the previous government’s National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology. She was absolutely in favour of unblocking YouTube — so what went wrong? Plenty.

Since assuming power, the government has refused to tackle the issue seriously, opting instead to issue intermittent vague promises of an end to the ban, while near simultaneously insisting the ban would remain in place. This strategy may have worked indefinitely if it wasn’t for a petition filed in the Lahore High Court that resulted in a court ordered meeting in May between petitioners Bytes For All, members of the Ministry of Information Technology, including Anusha Rehman, and the heads of multiple government and corporate organisations, including the chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.

The outcome of the meeting was positive and a joint submission by all stakeholders to the court is in the pipeline. This week, the National Assembly also unanimously adopted a resolution to lift the ban on YouTube, but stakeholders close to the issue are divided on whether these developments signal real progress.

“The National Assembly resolution is a big drama. A representative from YouTube has visited Pakistan three times in the last year but the minister refused to meet him,” a source close to the issue said, adding that Google submitted a solution in writing to the Senate months ago: interstitial warnings — a warning page before a video plays — that appears on every copy of Innocence of Muslims hosted on YouTube, not just in Pakistan, but globally.

Additionally, the source said Google also agreed to blocking any copies of the video in future if notified by Pakistan; however, a first list submitted by the government included numerous video block requests that were not copies of Innocence of Muslims. Given such tactics and massive delays on the part of the government, Google went ahead with this solution anyway.

“It’s really simple. Interstitials were offered to Pakistan just like they were offered to Bangladesh, which accepted the solution last year and ended the ban,” says Director of BoloBhi Farieha Aziz. “YouTube has already applied this, Pakistan doesn’t even have to request it — it’s been done. All that remains is for the PML-N government to make the decision to unban YouTube and move forward.”

For Google, this system was easy to implement as a stopgap solution until Pakistan introduces an intermediary liability protection (ILP) law, which the company has been demanding in order to establish a localised version of YouTube. The localised version of the site would give both Pakistan and Google greater flexibility in responding to such a crisis in future, but this option remains in limbo as ILP is part and parcel of the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Ordinance which has remained in draft form for the last five years and was, ironically, the legislation Anusha Rehman worked on at length.

Those in the industry say Google is also not interested in ‘going down the Facebook path’ — a reference to the social network’s agreement with the government to restrict access to pages and groups as submitted by the PTA.

The agreement has been roundly criticised by human rights organisations due to its clandestine nature, and in light of the fact that Facebook pages such as that of Roshni.pk — an independent group lobbying for secularism in Pakistan — were restricted for local users by Facebook, while pages run by banned organisations and militant groups continue to operate with relative impunity.

According to those working on the issue, the interstitial warnings solution seems the only acceptable way forward in the short term.

“I can say with absolute authority there is no technical solution to blocking content on YouTube … even the government has realised that,” says Country Director of Bytes For All Pakistan Shahzad Ahmad, in reference to the recent joint meeting ordered by the LHC.

“Intermediary liability protection laws will also not be enough … mechanisms would have to be developed as simply imposing a law with no real systems in place will cause more harm than good,” he adds.

Given that interstitial warnings are already in place for Innocence of Muslims on YouTube and can be applied to any future videos that result in a crisis-like situation, ending the ban on YouTube appears to only be a question of political will — end the ban, flip the switch.

But what if interstitials are ‘not enough’ for the extremist elements that led the violent riots resulting in the ban on YouTube?

As Ahmad recalls, “This point has been brought up many times in the courtroom, and it has been used as a threat as well, with groups walking into sessions warning of dire consequences…but stopping danga fasaad is the state’s job, isn’t it? If mobs come out on the streets and break the law, should we fold over, or stay the course and do the right thing?”

Dawn

ISLAMABAD: There is no foolproof way to block access to a video that resulted in the ban on YouTube in Pakistan, according to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman Dr Ismail Shah. Dr Shah’s statement on Monday came a day before the Lahore High Court hears a petition seeking the court’s directive to the government to allow access to YouTube, blocked since September 2012.

The court will hear a petition filed by Bytes for All, a non-government organisation. The petitioner submitted that any filtering and blocking of information online is counter-productive and predatory. Dr Shah and officials from the ministry of information and technology will appear in court today to give a policy statement on whether the offending video – entitled The Innocence of Muslims – can be blocked.

“The PTA has tried to find a technical solution to block the video while keeping YouTube open, but it is next to impossible and this is what I will inform the court,” said Dr Shah, while addressing the first national 3G/4G seminar, held in Islamabad. The PTA can create a warning page that opens prior to the video, he suggested.

Shah said the video was uploaded on hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPs) – a communication protocol over a computer network which cannot be removed except by blocking the website. Shah will inform the court that the PTA cannot remove the video because of technical obstacles. At the end of the day, he said, the government and court will have to make a decision.

“We have looked into practices in other Muslim countries as well and found that they too could not block the video,” he said. He explained that the video is accessible in Qatar, preceded by a warning, a system that Pakistan could replicate. “Even if it is not available on YouTube, it will be available on other websites,” the chairman said. According to the PTA’s findings, there are 48,000 copies of the video accessible online currently. He explained that the Pakistani government had contacted Google Inc in order to remove the offending video, but was refused.

Dr Shah added that religious scholars had advised him that the government’s current strategy was wrong, prescribing that messages and videos spreading a positive message of Islam should be uploaded to counter negative portrayals.

3G Auction

While bidding for the auction of 3G and 4G licences will take part next month, Dr Shah said he was not confident of any new entrants taking part in the process. He said new entrants were requesting conditions such as a period of one year in which existing bidders should be barred from rolling out 3G services in the market, aimed at allowing new entrants time to gain a foothold in the market. “My assessment is that it will be difficult for a new player to enter the process,” he said.

Express Tribune

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to visit New York on 23rd of this month to attend the UN General Assembly session and is due to fly to USA today (Sunday). During his weeklong stay in the US‚ the Prime Minister will address the UN General Assembly on 27th September in which he is set to highlight Pakistan’s point of view on various regional and international issues, besides domestic priorities.

Sources in telecom sector privy to the development told this scribe that YouTube is likely to reopen soon across the country as the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has dispatched a summary to the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. They said that ostensibly necessary measures and arrangements to point out and immediately block the unbearable material from the Internet has been completed. And, with this, the sacrilegious material would be blocked or filtered with the assistance of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL). A committee constituted by the ministry has already given his green signal to go ahead and recommended to reload the website, they added.

Since the incumbent PML-N government has sworn in power, it has been seriously contemplating over the controversial matter very sensitively to reopen the YouTube. A research had also been initiated by the telecom ministry to determine the YouTube links, which contained the sacrilegious movie, and also for blocking mechanisms for other URLs and links on both the Http and the secure Https protocols to ensure the restraint of controversial content.

During the last week of August last, Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication Anusha Rahman Khan while taking to the media persons also said that YouTube would open soon and a cell has been established in PTA to point out and immediately block the unbearable material from the Internet. She also said that a team comprising experts was working hard round the clock to block the sites containing blasphemous material and about 4000 such sites have already been blocked. She said that the government was working on the issue involving blockage of YouTube and a committee consisting of 14 members had deeply worked on the matter and had put forwarded some recommendations for consideration to resolve the matter permanently. The committee recommended the government to open the website, she added.

The minister also said that with the help of free of cost filters from Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) a trial was conducted and 4,000 URLs had been blocked successfully. She also informed the journalists that a response cell in PTA has also been established to monitor and immediately block the blasphemous material on the Internet following the refusal of the Google Inc. management to block those URL that contained unbearable material, she added.

The Google Inc had so far declined to cooperate with the government of Pakistan in removing unpleasant material from the websites and the honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan that found blasphemous material on the website ordered to suspend the YouTube in Pakistan. Moreover, the last government to quell simmering protests appeared after the release of anti-Islam amateur film “Innocence of Muslims”, had blocked YouTube in Pakistan in 2012. And, a decision to close YouTube in Pakistan was also taken by the Inter-Ministerial Committee. In accordance, the IT ministry ordered PTA to block the websites. Similarly, a policy directive was also issued by the ministry in May 2012 and advised the PTA to deploy a state of the art technical solution to proactively and independently block blasphemous and pornographic matters from the websites.

Interestingly, the IT ministry had earlier also taken up the matters with the management of YouTube and Facebook for blocking the blasphemous content from websites. In response, Facebook had restricted the access and upload of the video on the website. But, the Google Inc did not remove the sacrilegious content by saying that YouTube complies with international laws that are subject to the laws of United States that, however, do not comply with Pakistan-specific content removal request.

The Nation