Another viral story on social and mainstream media has turned out to be fake and fabricated as the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has categorically denied imposing any fee on YouTube channels.
Addressing media in Islamabad, Chairman PEMRA, Mirza Aslam Baig, said that the authority has no plan to place a ban on YouTube channels.
“We had only sought suggestions to regulate web TVs and YouTube channels,” he said and added that the work on new channel licenses will be completed in three to four months.
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Here’s Why PEMRA’s Proposed Regulations for Web TV and OTT are Problematic
Earlier, a faction of media had aired the news claiming that PEMRA, on the direction of the federal government, was going to enforce a license on Web TV and Over the Top TV (OTT) Content Services in Pakistan.
The news story blamed the government for using cheap tactics to “curtail the freedom of speech and to gag voices.”
However, PEMRA quickly issued a rebuttal of the story saying that no such action was taken.
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PEMRA Clarifies After Backlash Over OTT and Web TV Licensing
“The objective for the consultation on regulating Web TV & OTT Services is elaborated in Section 1.2 of the Consultation Paper wherein it has been elaborated that the extensive growth of the web TV and OTT market and the excessive disruption of these services to traditional broadcast services have made regulators vigilant all over the world.”
