Lahore (Staff Report): The Lahore High court (LHC) has suspended the penalty notification issued to Neo TV Network for broadcasting the news of 'Gulberg blast'.
LHC judge Justice Ameen-ud-Din on Monday heard a plea of Neo TV Network, challenging Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA)’s decision to impose Rs 10,00,000 fine for airing a fake news regarding 'Gulberg blast'.
Advocate Saad Rasool presented the plea from Neo TV Network in the court.
During the proceedings of the case, Neo TV Network’s lawyer Saad Rasool said that PEMRA illegitimately imposed penalty on Neo TV Network. He said that PEMRA went against rules and regulation ignoring relevant laws.
After hearing the case, the court ordered to suspend PEMRA’s notice and sought a report within four weeks.
PEMRA had impose a fine of Rs1 million on each national private TV channel and Rs500,000 on each regional TV channel, which had aired fake news of a bomb blast in Gulberg, Lahore on February 23, 2017.
The authority also directed the management of all 29 TV channels to air apology on their screens on March 06, 2017 at 6:00pm in the same manner and magnitude as the fake news was aired. Besides, tickers/scroll pertaining to apology shall also be aired from 6:00pm to 7:00pm during the regular transmission of the channels.
