The government has stopped broadcasting Geo News, one of Pakistan’s largest private news channels, for 15 days. It is alleged that the channel showed such religious scenes in the special Muharram program ‘Safar-e-Ishq’, which could have hurt the religious sentiments of the people. Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) said that this could disturb religious harmony and there was a danger of affecting law and order.
PEMRA issued an order on June 27 and suspended the license of Geo News for 15 days. During this period, the broadcast of the channel will be completely stopped on satellite, cable and all other platforms. All cable and distribution companies have been asked to immediately comply with this order.
The channel will have to answer
The matter will now be investigated by the Council of Complaints of PEMRA. This council will decide whether any further action should be taken on the channel or not. Besides, Geo News has also been ordered to conduct an internal investigation. The channel will have to explain how this mistake happened and what steps will be taken to ensure that such an incident does not happen again in future.
Geo News apologized
After the controversy escalated, Geo News publicly apologized. The channel admitted that it was an editorial mistake. According to Geo News, the scenes shown in the program were related to religious traditions followed by some people in Iraq and some other Middle Eastern countries. The channel says that its intention was not to support or propagate any religious idea.
The channel also said that it had not prepared the controversial video itself and it was not shown intentionally. As soon as information about the mistake was received, that part was immediately removed. Action was taken against the employees concerned and the channel also aired an on-air apology.
Geo News PAK’s popular Urdu news channel
Religious matters are considered very sensitive in Pakistan. Therefore, the media regulator there keeps a close watch on religious programs. Geo News was started in 2002. It is among the most watched Urdu news channels of Pakistan and has been covering elections, political crises, terrorism, natural disasters and other major national events for more than 20 years.
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