Two TV channels taken off air
Bureau Report

KARACHI—Two of Pakistan’s leading private television networks, ordered off air during President Pervez Musharraf’s emergency rule, said on Saturday they had been forced to close down altogether after being ordered to halt transmissions via the United Arab Emirates. Geo, Pakistan’s biggest television network, and ARY One World, both have offices and studios in Dubai Media City, from where they broadcast news.
“We have been told by the (Dubai) Media City that our transmission will be shut down,” Imran Aslam, president of Geo News, reporters. “This is all I can say at the moment.” An official at ARY also confirmed getting similar orders. Both the channels went off air at 1:00 a.m. Pakistan time. No one at Dubai Media City was immediately available for comment.
Geo TV’s web site (www.geo.tv) said the channel was shut down “after President Pervez Musharraf put tremendous pressure to silence a media outlet which had refused to bow down to his dictates”. “Informed sources said President Pervez Musharraf himself intervened to stop all Geo news transmissions from Dubai, after a two-week standoff in Pakistan during which all major news channels were shut down by cable operators, who are directly controlled by the Pakistani authorities,” it said.
Local and international television channels disappeared from cable television in Pakistan amid media curbs imposed by military ruler Musharraf on Nov. 3, which ban reporting which humiliates the presidency, military or government. Some channels have since resumed broadcasts, but Geo has refused to agree to a new government media code.
The television network has challenged the government’s curbs in the High Court in Sindh province. The next hearing is due on Nov. 20. The media have flourished since Musharraf seized power in a bloodless 1999 coup, but the feisty private media that grew up during his rule have been highly critical of him since he tried to sack the country’s chief justice in March. Musharraf has accused some television channels of adding to the uncertainty that led him to impose emergency rule — which critics say was solely aimed at trying to hold on to power. Central leader of Pakistan People Party (PPP) Makhdoom Amin Fahim Saturday said that ban on private TV channels would be a wrong step on behalf of the government and PPP would protest against it. Talking to a private TV channel, he said that people are in dire need of complete information regarding the current political situation, while ban on media would be a wrong step on behalf of the government, he added. He said that any step in this connection taken by the government would be challenged and PPP would hold protest demonstration against the government on the issue.
International organization journalists “Reporters Without Borders” has expressed its deep shock by the complete interruption in Dubai of the broadcasts of two Pakistani TV stations, Geo News and Ary One World, which have offices in Dubai. Geo News said the decision was preceded by constant pressure on the Dubai authorities from President Pervez Musharraf. The press freedom organization calls on the Emir of Dubai not to bow to the pressure and rescind the decision allowing the two stations to resume broadcasting.