ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2023, passed by the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting on Friday. The bill also defines “disinformation.”
The group met at Radio Pakistan, and Javaria Zafar Aheer was in charge. They called the bill a “historic” effort to help journalists. They thanked everyone involved, including the government, for their work in this area.
Marriyum Aurangzeb told the committee that the Pemra rule needed to changed because everything about the media changed.
She said that this the first time that the Pemra law, which made public in 2002, changed. “Nine of its clauses changed, and five more put in.”
The minister said that the changed law gave media workers the right to make complaints with the council of complaints for the first time. Before, they could not even ask for their pay without being fired.
She also said that, under the new bill, the Pemra chairman would no longer be able to shut down a station but rather a three-person committee.
Marriyum said that a black law like the Pakistan Media Development Authority tried and failed to pass in the past.
But the current government took 13 months to make the changes to the bill because they talked to everyone involved, including media workers’ groups and owners of media houses.
The minister said that the bill also included the definitions of fake news, deception, and misinformation. Misinformation and false information seen as two different things.
