A parliamentary panel on Wednesday proposed a new name for the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage, as 'Ministry for Public Information, Media and National Heritage'. The National Assembly Standing committee on Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage discussed the recommendations of the Media Commission appointed by the Supreme Court in 2013, and unanimously passed recommendations in this regard.
The recommendations include: Ministry of Information and IT can be merged due to new areas of convergence. The committee also recommended the creation of a single new integrated regulatory body by merging PEMRA, PTA including cinema on the lines of OFCOM in the UK. In the cinema sector, there is a need to ensure inter provincial harmony in the implementation of censorship rules in the provinces. All imported films to be censored by the federal government. Provincial censor boards should include federal representation.
The committee said the existence of Ministry of Information is important, however, its restructuring is critical. The Ministry has assured the committee that their restructuring plans will be presented within one month to the committee. The committee recommended that the review of the existing 64 laws on Media is critical. New laws are equally required, specifically for advertising regulation, convergence, cross media ownership negative impacts, and self regulation. The Standing Committee will be having special meetings with legal experts on this critical subject soon and will be appointing a Media Laws Review Taskforce with a 6-month mandate to examine 64 laws and to propose amendments as well as new laws where required, the committee further recommended.
The committee also recommended that there is a need to rationalise the principles on the basis of which advertising rates are determined for the placement of government advertisements in print and electronic media so as to end the discrepancies. The government should propose single transparent policy for awarding advertisement. There is a need to reform the system by which advertisements of federal and provincial governments are placed by restructuring the audit bureau of circulation and inducting reputed firms from private sector to make ABC credible; and by other methods such as possible decentralisation, the committee added.
The committee urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to implement recommendation of media commission to ensure transparency in use of funds for advertising in the forthcoming local governments elections. The committee said that the PEMRA has not satisfactorily addressed the concerns raised by the Media Commission Report regarding: the restructuring of PEMRA, Autonomy of PEMRA from Executive, Direct Parliamentary Purview & Oversight of PEMRA, Review of the PEMRA Act 2002 (Amended 2007) and Private Monopolies in Media created as a result of the Amended PEMRA Act 2007. Unfortunately without addressing these core issues, it is difficult to conceive that PEMRA will be able to respond to the challenges it faces as an independent media regulator. It is therefore recommended that the Ministry of Information should undertake an immediate examination of these concerns, with a clear deadline in mind, to suggest the best ways and means to implement the recommendations of the Media Commission.
The committee, which met with Marvi Memon in the chair, was informed that secret funds have been abolished and the second list would be presented to the committee and to the public after audit or as per Supreme Court directions. Secretary Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Dr Nazir Saeed told the committee that the Ministry of Information is working to implement the recommendations of the Media Commission appointed by the Supreme Court.
He said that on issue of access to information, the government adopted a private member bill which was approved by the Senate. He said that on the directives of the Prime Minister, the ministry is working on restructuring of public sector autonomous organisations and a ministerial committee headed by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was also constituted to look into the matter.
Senior journalists Hamid Mir and Absar Alam urged the committee to issue directives for release of the second report about recipients of secret funds form the Ministry of Information. Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Pervaiz Rashid said that he had no objection to making public all lists related to release of secret funds.