Effectively regulating electronic media: National Assembly body calls for improving Pemra's role

Advertisements with foreign content are mostly belong to multi-national companies, thus one has to confront numerous issues before taking any decision to define the word 'obscenity', a parliamentary panel was informed on Thursday.
Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira informed the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting that efforts were under way to define 'obscenity', however, he said that hitherto no final and consensus definition was found to go ahead within its parameters.
The committee, which met with Belum Hasnain in the chair, underlined the need for taking concrete steps to improve the role of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) to effectively regulate media outlets for achieving national development. The committee was of the view that government should take concrete measures to prevent local channels from airing contents of Indian culture especially in advertisements.
MNA Bushra Rehman said that foreign contents, being aired on local channels, were promoting obscenity in the society having negative impact on local culture and younger generation. About the issue of security of journalists working in critical circumstances, Kaira told the committee that the issue was of broad nature and was discussed with all journalists' bodies, but so far the journalist bodies did not submit any workable frame work, which could ensure full protection or security to the journalists community.