ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority’s (PEMRA) Council of Complaints on Saturday recommended Rs 500,000 fines each on the television channels that telecasted the news of PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s marriage on July 12 without verification.
The complaint was lodged by PTI Central Media Department Head Iftikhar Durrani. The meeting – chaired by Shamim Humyun – gave the observation that all the channels that violated the code of conduct by airing the news should pay the fine and tender an apology.
Durrani requested the council to take action against Dunya TV and drop the charges against the rest but the council opined that this would be against the spirit of the justice so all the 12 channels violating the code should be penalised.
The channels that violated the code include Dunya News, Geo News, Neo News, Royal News, Khyber News, Channel 24, Channel 92, News One, Such TV, Roze News, Channel 5 and Geo Tez. The council also recommended that if any channel failed to deposit the fine, its license should be revoked.
The council while hearing the complaint of Mariyam Nawaz against the management of ‘Channel 24’ declared its reply unsatisfactory and imposed a fine of Rs 500,000 on its management. Moreover the council recommended that if the channel failed to apologise and pay the fine, its license should be revoked.
On the complaints of several MNAs for terming the members of Parliament as ‘traitors’ – in its programme ‘Tabdeeli’ – the council imposed a fine of Rs 500,000 on Neo TV.
