AudiencScapes

by Gayatri Murthy, AudienceScapes

(8 June 2010) Pakistani media authorities captured world attention in mid-May when they imposed bans on Facebook and YouTube. Less noticed abroad, however, was a decision on 28 April 2010 by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to heavily restrict broadcasting by FM stations of the British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) Urdu-language news bulletins.

Prior to this latest PEMRA move, BBC Urdu bulletins were broadcast 11 times a day on 34 stations. PEMRA completely suspended transmission on 24 stations and restricted the number of bulletins to three times a day on 10 channels located in Punjab province. The 24 stations hit with total bans all transmit in the less developed and less accessible northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, formerly called the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP). [1]

The PEMRA gave no reasons or explanation for the BBC Urdu crackdown, whereas the Facebook and YouTube moves were linked to blasphemous content against Islam available on these sites. [2] However, a recent blog posting by the  Critical Supporters of the Pakistan’s People’s Party posited that the possible reasons include the BBC’s critical reporting on violence in Baluchistan and its divergence from the State’s stance on recent issues relating to the judiciary, the army, nuclear proliferation and the Taliban. The BBC decided to challenge the ban in June. BBC Pakistan's Acting Editor Haroon Rasheed has said he would lodge a case against the decision with the relevant authorities. He also said that PEMRA’s decision to shut down these bulletins was biased and illegal as, according to him, BBC Pakistan has been abiding by all terms and conditions of the country’s laws. [3]

The BBC Urdu crackdown is likely to have far greater impact than the YouTube/Facebook ban on most Pakistani's ability to access to objective news and information. Internet access is still rare in Pakistan; less than 10 percent of respondents in a 2008 national media survey (conducted by the BBC) said they have regular access to the web. Sites such as Facebook and YouTube are accessible mainly to an elite section of society, rendering them rather insignificant spheres of influence in the eyes of the Pakistani government. BBC’s Urdu service, on the other hand, reaches far and wide, especially to those who do not speak English, who live in rural, and who are difficult to access geographically. For most Pakistanis, radio is the only cheap and accessible source of information.

The opportunities to access credible, independent news sources is very limited. Although the state-run Radio Pakistan is available throughout the country, its broadcasts are perceived as largely biased towards the State’s positions on major issues. There are plenty of private radio stations operating in most regions (more than 100 private FM radio stations have been licensed in Pakistan), but PEMRA forbids them from broadcasting their own news programs. In addition, private FM radio stations broadcast mainly from urban areas and remain inaccessible to more rural regions in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan.

Further complicating this information deficit, BBC reports that there are close to 150 illegal FM radio stations run either by extremist religious groups or militants, including Pakistani Taliban, in the NWFP. These rogue stations thus face little competition, given the restrictions placed on radio outlets. PEMRA has only been partially successful in curbing these illegal stations; many have been shut down but new ones sprout up immediately afterward.

Thus news and information sources for those with limited access to other mediums are mainly limited to state-run outlets, militant illegal radio or international broadcasters such as BBC and VOA.


Quoted in the Daily Times , Radio FM Dilbar Director Imtiaz Butt said that his radio was providing services to inaccessible areas like Swat, Swabi and Charsadda, and the BBC bulletins gave a massive boost to his channel, which showed the public interest in those bulletins.

Hamid Mir, co-founder of the Pakistani Geo TV, quoted in an article in the International Press Institute said that “PEMRA is also putting pressure on different private television channels not to air paid programs from Voice of America. If BBC and VOA are not encouraged in Pakistan they may close their operations and lot of journalists will lose their jobs”.

Radio still is the cheapest way of getting news and it can also be made available in the far-flung areas where there was still no access to television or any other information source. A majority of Pakistanis live in rural areas. In such a scenario, the ban on BBC Urdu service poses a threat to the availability of non-governmental information sources available to Pakistanis, especially those who rely solely on the radio for vital news and information.

Related Feature Articles from Pakistan

News Television, Who's Watching?- 

Pakistan: On the Cutting Edge of Mobile Communications 

Religious Media Content: A Cable Phenomenon-

Also:

Pakistan Country Profile

Pictures Courtesy: Internews on Flickr

[1] "Why are local radio stations banned from retransmitting BBC news bulletins?" Reportesr Without Borders. Accessed from http://en.rsf.org/why-are-local-radio-stations-01-06-2010,37638.html

[2] Ibid

[3] "BBC Pakistan to challenge ban on its radio services" OneIndia. Accessed from http://news.oneindia.in/2010/06/07/bbcpakistan-to-challenge-ban-on-its-radio-services.html