Islamabad, Aug. 29 (TNS): A unified Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority is being created with merger of existing PEMRA and Press Council.
This was stated by Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhdary during media interaction outside parliament house in Islamabad today.
He said the merger would help save national resources as the new regulatory body would look after electronic, print and social media simultaneously.
The Minister said Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority would be a world class entity consisting of professionals and also representatives from media.
Fawad Chaudhry said people would observe changes in the realm of Information and Broadcasting in coming days. He said censorship in PTV has been done away with and it is now giving coverage to opposition as well.
The Minister said PTV National would be converted into PTV Politics and it would be telecast live proceedings of the parliament, its committees and the provincial assemblies.
He said this would help people give an idea as to the performance of the elected representatives. He said a Review Committee on government ads has also been formed. The Prime Minister has already given directions that there should be no personal publicity at the expense of the public exchequer.
Fawad Chaudhry regretted that the opposition in the Senate staged a walk out today without any justification. He said, perhaps, the opposition wanted to avoid discussion on questions relating to advertisements worth 23 billion rupees during tenure of the previous government.
Minister for Information said the present Government is giving due importance to the parliament and is focused on resolving challenges confronting the country. He said the Prime Minister himself attended proceedings of the Senate on its first sitting on Monday which reflected the importance he attaches to the parliament.
