ISLAMABAD – On Monday, ARY News, a popular TV station in Pakistan, was suspended by the country’s electronic media commission.
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) instructed cable providers to obstruct the broadcast of ARY News “until further notice.”
According to reports, the station has also received a formal show cause notice accusing it of transmitting inaccurate, hateful, and seditious information.
The media watchdog said that broadcasting such hate speech on news channels demonstrates either a poor editorial in the material or that the licensee purposefully gives its platform to those who want to create animosity and hatred towards the state institution for their own benefit.
A foreign news agency was informed by the officials of the private news station that the channel had been stopped because it had broadcast a section that was seen as critical of the current administration.
Salman Iqbal, the founder and CEO of ARY, said that the news station was shut down simply because we had published a “real story.”
