Federal Information Minister Maryam Aurangzeb presented the PEMRA Amendment Bill 2023 in the National Assembly. 9 sections were amended and 5 new sections were added, including the introduction of PEMRA Bill.
Sections 2, 6, 8, 11, 13, 24, 26, 27, 29 of the PEMRA Act have been amended. New clauses 20, 20A, 29A, 30B, 39A have been added in the bill.
The introduction of the bill includes material related to certified news, tolerance, economic and energy development and children. Amendments to the Bill’s introduction, the scope of public entertainment, education and information was widened.
The proposed bill states that the media will use verified news and content promoting tolerance in broadcasting. Content related to general development, energy and economic development will also be included in the broadcast.
Clause 5 has been amended and electronic media has been made liable to pay salaries to employees on time. Timely payment refers to payments made to electronic media employees within 2 months. In the new clause of 20A, electronic media employees have been made liable for timely payment of salaries. Government advertisements on non-payment of salaries will not be provided to the media.
According to the proposed bill, broadcast media license will be for 20 years and distribution license for 10 years.
According to the proposed bill, the applicable fee would be payable, excluding annual gross advertising revenue. The definition of disinformation has also been included in the bill through an amendment. Disinformation refers to news that is unverifiable, misleading and fabricated or fake.
According to the proposed bill, the news will be called ‘disinformation’ which is given for personal, political, financial gain or harassment.
The proposed bill further states that news given without taking the stand of the person concerned will fall within the definition of ‘disinformation’. The position of the victim will also be aired in the same prominent manner as the news against him.
setTimeout(function(){
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘836181349842357’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
}, 6000);
/*setTimeout(function(){
(function (d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s);
js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.11&appId=580305968816694”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
}, 4000);*/