Soon after taking the charge of federal information ministry on Tuesday newly appointed Federal Information Minister Maryam Aurangzeb announced that the government has disbanded Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority (PMDA) saying the government is also determined to review the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA).
Ousted government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had formed the PMDA without bothering hue and cry of journalists who agitated the law terming it as an attempt to muzzle media. Media industry has faced curbs under Imran Khan’s three and a half years rule, however, the PECA, was enacted under PML-N’s government in 2016 and has since been used for crackdowns against social media users. Maryam Aurangzeb who always attended the top court proceedings in recent weeks held a press conference shortly after taking charge of her ministry on Tuesday.
She also announced that she had abolished the digital media wing at the information ministry for being redundant since the ministry also has a cyber wing. She was of the view that the PTI had recruited its workers to the digital media wing, alleging that the wing has been used in recent weeks against state institutions. She informed that the PTI recruited people who did not show up ever since the new government came to power. “Since we came into power, we can’t find the former team of 30 to 35 people,” she said, adding that there are only three to four people the government has from the team.
Maryam Aurangzeb declared the PMDA ‘an attempt to gag an already suppressed media’ and a ‘black law’ saying that in whatever shape or form the authority was working it was now being disbanded. The minister lauded journalists’ struggle against media censorship in the past four years. “The Islamabad High Court termed the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) Amendment Ordinance unconstitutional due to your efforts,” she said.
“We will also review the PECA law and take all stakeholders on board in this regard,” Aurangzeb said. “We will also identify the gaps which are there and were used to muzzle the media.” She said for the last four years, Pakistan experienced suffocation in the form of abusive language, political targeting, black laws, or ordinances.
In a bid to converge multiple media regulatory bodies and regulations for digital media, the former PTI-led government had proposed the formation of the PMDA. According to the proposal, the PMDA was solely responsible for the regulation of print, broadcast and digital media in Pakistan.
Talking about a Twitter trend against the sitting government, Aurangzeb said the government has gathered data on the bot Twitter accounts that are being operated to malign the institutions and run trends against them.
“This does not come under freedom of expression as these campaigns are being run through software. There is zero tolerance on such trends and campaigns,” the information minister said. She also said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will address the nation in a day or two.
