ISLAMABAD: The\nPakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) has directed Neo TV to\nair entertainment content only and stop airing news and current affairs\nprogrammes as it does not possess a licence for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The directive by the\nregulatory authority came on Thursday as the Islamabad High Court (IHC)\ndismissed the channel\u2019s plea for change of its category from \u201centertainment\u201d to\n\u201cnews and current affairs\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pemra had issued\nshow-cause notices to the Neo TV management since its launch in 2015 that it\nhad obtained a licence to operate an entertainment channel only and airing news\nand current affairs was contradictory to the terms and conditions of the\nlicence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the channel\nresponded to the show-cause notice by the authority, requesting for the change\nof its category from entertainment to news and current affairs. But the request\nwas turned down by Pemra as the official policy did not permit it. Consequently,\nthe channel approached the IHC, but the court dismissed the request for change\nof category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pemra once again\ndirected the channel on Thursday to immediately revert to its original\nprogramming \u2014 that is entertainment \u2014 and report to it within seven days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pemra has also\nwarned the channel that in case of non-compliance and repeated violation,\nstrict legal action will be initiated against the licensee under the Pemra\nOrdinance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pemra has also\nimposed a fine of Rs1 million on the channel for violation of its laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, a senior\nofficial of Pemra said that several other satellite channels have been\noperating without proper licen\u00adces to air news and current affairs content and\nexpressed the hope that their cases would also be decided by courts soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) has directed Neo TV to air entertainment content only and stop airing news and current affairs programmes as it does not possess a licence for it. The directive by the regulatory authority came on Thursday as the Islamabad High Court (IHC) dismissed the channel’s plea for change […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[4],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8967"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}