Pakistan's Geo TV forced to go off-air, govt. says not responsible
Islamabad, Apr 7 (IBNS): Pakistan's largest television network, Geo TV, has been forced to go off-air, media reports said on Saturday.
According to Mir Ibrahim Rahman, the chief executive of Geo network, the channel has gone off air in more than 80 percent of the area in Pakistan.
The Pakistan government has however said that it had nothing to do with the channel going off air.
Pakistan's home minister Ahsan Iqbal was quoted in the media as saying that Geo TV was not taken off air by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) or the ministry of information.
Thus prompting the question, 'who did it?'
According to reports, the blackout first began in the first week of March.
The first affected branch was Geo News. Slowly by the start of April, other Geo branches- entertainment and sports- too were affected.
Fasihur Rehman Khan, a senior journalist and analyst working for The News, Jang Group, told the Times Of India, "Though Pemra issued notices, and the matter was heard by the apex court, no one knows how to reverse the situation legally and formally. Officials at the media regulator seem helpless and powerless before the hands of invisible yet powerful people."
Others have suggested that it was the military who dealt the blow as it was reportedly not happy with Geo News' coverage of Pakistan’s placement on a terror financing watch list this year.
Geo News had also been critical about Pakistan's army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, and his tactics.
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