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Tag: Geo TV

  • Geo TV blacked out by Pemra

    Geo TV blacked out by Pemra

    MUMBAI: In April, this year, Pakistan’s popular television channel, Geo TV’s news anchor Hamid Mir was attacked. The channel believed and linked the country’s intelligence agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), to the attack.

     

    Since then, the channel has been entangled with a defamation  row with ISI. However, things took an ugly turn when Pakistan’s Electronic Media Regularity Authority (Pemra) suspended the licence of the TV station for 15 days.

     

    In a statement, Pemra said that they had made the decision following a complaint against Geo TV filed by the Defence Ministry.

     

    Pemra said it “took a strong notice of violations committed” by the channel and “unanimously decided” immediately to suspend its licence in addition to imposing a 10 million Pakistani rupees ($100,000) fine.

     

    It added that if the fine was not paid before the end of the suspension period, the channel would remain off air.

     

    As per various reports, even before Friday’s (6 June) suspension, Geo News and its sister channels were off air in much of Pakistan as cable operators had pulled them off, under pressure from the military.

     

    However, Geo argues that it has already publicly apologised to the ISI for its coverage and hence the ban is unfair.

     

    The move has been criticised not only by the media fraternity in the country but internally as well.

     

    On its website, Geo TV has carried a report on what Amnesty International said on the matter. The statement read: “The Pakistani government’s suspension of Geo TV, the country’s largest private broadcaster, is a politically motivated attack on freedom of expression and the media.”

     

    “The suspension of Geo TV is a serious attack on press freedom in Pakistan. It is the latest act in an organised campaign of harassment and intimidation targeting the network on account of its perceived bias against the military,” said Amnesty International’s Asia director Richard Bennett.

     

    In a report released on 30 April, Amnesty International had documented how media professionals in the country live under constant threat of harassment, violence and killings from a range of state and non-state factors.

  • London Paris New York to premiere in Karachi

    London Paris New York to premiere in Karachi

    MUMBAI: Ali Zafar, who shot to fame in the 2010 film Tere Bin Laden, is excited because his upcoming film London Paris New York is going to be premiered in Karachi on 8 March.

    Two years ago, Zafar’s debut film Tere Bin Laden (2010) that the Pakistani singer-actor was co-distributing in Pakistan was banned three days before its release in the country for fear that Islamist extremists could use it as a pretext for terror attacks.

    The ban followed even after the producers were willing to drop the word Laden from the title and release it as Tere Bin in the country. But despite all efforts, the film couldn’t be officially released there.

    Zafar is confident that it won’t happen this time around. “There’s a huge buzz, people are looking forward to it. In fact, we’ve planned a big, red carpet premiere in Karachi on 8 March if we can get the requisite permission.”

    Ali has been promoting the film extensively on Pakistan’s biggest TV network, Geo TV, which will be releasing the film in the country.

    London Paris New York is a coming of age love story mirroring 3 states of love and brings back wit into Bollywood‘s romantic comedies.

    The film is the story about Lalitha, a middle class south Indian girl from Chembur (an eastern suburb in Mumbai) who is on her way to New York to study politics with full scholarship, and Nikhil, a Punjabi, rich kid from Bandra (a posh western suburb of Mumbai )who is going to study Film Making in London on 100 per cent dad‘s money. They decide to hangout together one evening in London and find that they are completely drawn to each other even as their future lies on separate continents. The film follows their personal journey and their love story.

    London Paris New York releases across India on 2 March.