Notices to cable operators for airing illegal Jihadi Channels from Jihadistan

Notices to cable operators for airing illegal channels

Mohit Kandhari | Jammu – Daily Pioneer

Cracking a whip on Pakistani channels, which are still not registered with the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the district administration in Jammu has served notices to private cable operators to immediately prohibit telecast of 12 channels, 11 being run from Pakistan and one from Dubai within two days.

According to the notification, channels, including Peace TV (Dubai), QTV, ARY, PTV Home, PTV World, Geo TV, Dawn, Express, Waqat, Noor TV, Hadi TV and Aaj all being run from Pakistan, have been shortlisted to be taken off the air until further orders.

Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, Manoj Kumar Dwivedi told The Pioneer, “a notice has been served to cable operators of Jammu to immediately stop the telecast of 12 channels, which have been listed as illegal and submit compliance report within two days from the date of issuance of the notice failing which action as mentioned in the rules will be taken”.

Meanwhile, the cable operators in Jammu are yet to take cognisance of the notices served to them and continue to telecast some of these channels through their cable service network.

Official sources said it was already in the notice of the Union Ministry that some of the Multi-System Operator (MSOs)/cable operators were still airing illegal and unauthorised television channels on their cable TV service network ignoring guidelines. The guidelines permitted telecast of only those channels which were registered with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting under the policy guidelines for down-linking of TV channels in India.

On the other hand, the main Opposition party in Jammu and Kashmir, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has taken serious note of the decision of the Government to ban 12 Pakistani channels in Jammu region without any reason.

PDP general secretary Thakur Balbir Singh and party MLC Murtaza Khan have flayed this arbitrary decision of the Government.

PDP leaders said that there was no reason to ban airing of these channels in Jammu as such channels were not telecasting anything provocative or wrong.

“Some channels banned by the Government were rather telecasting programmes for strengthening peace and communal harmony among cross-sections of the society and religious programmes.

There is no logic behind this decision, the PDP leaders said claiming that the move seems to have hurt the religious sentiments of people.

Another PDP leader Murtaza Khan warned the Government against taking such ‘foolish’ decision and observed these actions would increase alienation of people. “In a democratic system people are free to watch any programme and channel and decision to curtail their constitutional rights would prove counter productive, he added.

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