Pakistan Bans Geo News Broadcast for 15 Days due to Muharram Program

Pakistan Bans Geo News Broadcast for 15 Days due to Muharram Program

ISLAMABAD, June 29, [VoM News]: Pakistan’s media regulator on Thursday suspended the broadcast license of television channel Geo News for 15 days over its content during a broadcast of a Muharram program, fearing it might harm religious sentiments and disturbance of public order.

“In consideration of the religious visualizations displayed … It has been noted that such material might be hurtful to religious sentiments of public and disturbing the order during one of the most sanctified period of the Islamic year,” the regulator, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), said in its notice to the broadcaster.

PEMRA ordered a probe within the news channel and referred the case to its Council of Complaints.

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The Geo News team has already apologized for the broadcast.

“Due to some inexplicable oversight and to our deepest regret… elements were incorporated in the broadcast that may be perceived to be insulting to certain religious communities,” Geo News said on Thursday in an online statement and then on air.

The station added that the clip has been removed from all platforms of the channel and had been shown “only to highlight local customs of some part of Iraq/Middle East and has not been intended to show to hurting any specific religious beliefs or sects.”

In Pakistan, religious imagery, including pictures of the Prophet Mohammed, is considered highly sacred and showing any can trigger a protest. Officials during the Muharram holiday take stringent security precautions to avoid sectarian clashes.

The suspension marks the latest regulatory crackdown against the media in Pakistan.

Several journalists and outlets have been blocked, restricted or pressured in recent months amid tight government controls over information.