Pakistan: News TV channel ordered to shut down for criticising govt
Chandigarh, July 6, 2020: Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on Monday ordered the shutting down of the 24NewsHD TV channel. This move renders nearly 1,000 employees on verge of losing their jobs, according to a report on the 24News HD TV website.
The move is the latest part of the series of actions taken against media houses and journalists ever since the PTI came into power in 2018.
Journalist organisations, political leaders, legal fraternity and even traders have joined countrywide protests and blocked highways and roads to condemn the government’s action against 24NewsHD TV channel.
Talking to 24NewsHD on Monday, Chaudhry Asif Majeed – a Punjab Assembly member from Rahim Yar Khan – asked the government to take notice of the issue.
24NewsHD had always followed positive journalism, he said and suggested that the problems, if there are any, should be resolved through discussion.
On the other hand, PML-N senior vice-president Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the way media was targeted by the incumbent government had no precedent in the country’s history.
PPP leader Senator Sherry Rehman said what kind of democratic government the country had which was only interested in listening to praise.
Addressing a protest outside Lahore Press Club and at Thokar Niaz Beg, PFUJ Secretary General Rana Azeem other speakers said they would fight against the current dictatorship and its fascist tendencies.
In Faisalabad, the journalists' community gathered in solidarity with 24NewsHD and said different mafias working under the PTI government were being protected and media was being silenced so that the reality could not be shared with the public.