KARACHI: The Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) has condemned the relocation of\u00a0Geo News<\/em>\u00a0from its original position to later numbers of channels by the media regulator Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra).<\/p>\n

In a statement on Tuesday, the PBA said a complaint was lodged by its member channel\u00a0Geo News<\/em>, saying it had been moved on several cable networks across the country, and that the action had been taken by Pemra without assigning a reason or giving it a hearing.<\/p>\n

The PBA demanded Pemra restore the channel immediately and specify in case there was any complaint against the channel or if it had violated the code of conduct.<\/p>\n

By not giving them the right of hearing and unilaterally taking this action is against all norms of justice and threatened freedom of expression, it said.<\/p>\n

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Geo News was forced off the air or its channel number was abruptly changed in many parts of the country.<\/p>\n

The CPJ is an independent, nonprofit organisation that promotes press freedom worldwide.<\/p>\n

The CPJ said the blockage began on Monday, hours before Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived in Washington, DC, on an official visit.<\/p>\n

The broadcaster\u2019s managing director Azhar Abbas told the CPJ that the channel was blocked without any notice or explanation from Pemra, government, or military.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe blockage of\u00a0Geo News<\/em>\u00a0just as Prime Minister Imran Khan visits Washington is an unfortunate illustration of how widespread censorship has become in Pakistan,\u201d said Steven Butler, CPJ\u2019s Asia programme coordinator.<\/p>\n

\u201cUS officials who meet Mr Khan should make clear that these blatant attacks on press freedom are unacceptable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Geo News<\/em>\u00a0has been repeatedly blocked, according to CPJ research.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeo<\/em>\u00a0has bled enormously in [the] last five and a half year[s] due to repeated illegal closure of the channel,\u201d Mr Abbas told CPJ, saying that\u00a0Geo<\/em>\u00a0staffers had not been paid in three months, and that this latest block could \u201cpotentially be fatal\u201d for the broadcaster.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is punished for its editorial policy,\u201d Mr Abbas said.<\/p>\n

Pemra did not immediately respond to an email from the CPJ seeking comment.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, privately owned news channels\u00a0Capital TV<\/em>,\u00a024 News HD<\/em>, and\u00a0Abbtakk News 247<\/em>\u00a0were also blocked, as the CPJ reported at the time.<\/p>\n

Dawn<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KARACHI: The Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) has condemned the relocation of Geo News from its original position to later numbers of channels by the media regulator Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra). In a statement on Tuesday, the PBA said a complaint was lodged by its member channel Geo News, saying it had been moved on several cable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,21],"tags":[17,4,328,123,3038,88],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8060"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}