PEMRA suspends licenses of Geo Entertainment & ARY

ISLAMABAD: The 97th authority meeting of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) was held at its headquarters in the federal capital on Friday. Besides other agenda items, it deliberated upon the matter of violations committed by two TV channels – Geo Entertainment and ARY News.
According to a press release, after considering all relevant legal provisions, the authority took a serious notice of violations committed by Geo Entertainment and ARY News and unanimously decided to immediately suspend the license of Geo Entertainment for a period of thirty (30) days besides imposing Rs 10 million fine.
The authority also banned ‘Utho Jago Pakistan’ programme aired on Geo Entertainment, its entire team, including host Shaista Lodhi, forthwith besides banning the re-broadcasting of the programme on any other channel.
Regarding the violations committed by ARY News, the authority unanimously decided to immediately suspend the licence of ARY News for a period of fifteen (15) days and imposed Rs 10 million fine.
The authority also banned ‘Khara Sach’ programme aired on ARY News and its anchor person Mubasher Lucman forthwith on persistently airing contemptuous and malicious campaign against the judiciary.
All of the field offices of PEMRA have been directed to implement the decisions of the authority in letter and spirit with immediate effect.

Source; PEMRA