PEMRA Bans TV Anchor for Making False Allegations Against OGDCL

The Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) has banned the TV anchor Dr. Danish for 30 days.

The said anchor has been prohibited to appear on any TV channel in any capacity. The authority has imposed the ban on the Dr. Danish for his false and unfounded allegations against the higher-ups of the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) in one of his programs.

As per the details, the OGDCL managing director and chief executive officer Zahid Mir had filed a complaint against Dr. Danish for leveling ‘a variety of unsubstantiated, false, and malicious allegations’ against him in his talk show named ‘Point of view with Dr. Danish’ aired on Channel 24 on June 14, 2018.

In the show, Dr. Danish alleged that the appointment of Zahid Mir was ‘out of merit’ and without an advertisement. According to Mir, the channel had claimed that many other high-level employees in OGDCL were also appointed in ‘an illegal manner’.

The channel named the chief financial officer, several general managers, and the executive director of finance in this regard. The complainant states that the allegations were leveled in a “vague and ambiguous manner and no proof was offered that the appointments in question were illegal in any way”.

He said that the channel has made several serious allegations regarding corruption and mismanagement without providing any evidence.

The order issued by the PEMRA office of the Council of Complaints shows that the channel had submitted its reply on Sept. 3. Also, Dr. Danish was asked to give his statement on the matter on Dec. 10, but he did not appear before the council.

Considering the recommendations of the Council of Complaints, PEMRA issued its orders:

All satellite television licensees are prohibited from airing any programme containing Dr. Dan­ish in any capacity whatsoever, i.e. host, guest, participant etc., for a period of 30 days from the date of issuance of this decision.

Via: Dawn