Govt Cancels NOC of ARY News

The Ministry of Interior has cancelled the No-Objection Certificate (NOC) of ARY Communications (Pvt.) Limited (aka ARY News), citing “adverse reports from agencies” as the reason behind the decision. According to the details, the move comes shortly after the Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) had ordered cable operators to suspend the channel’s transmission across the country.

The notification issued by the Ministry of Interior on August 11^th says, “The NOC issued in favor of M/S ARY Communications (Pvt.) Limited (ARY News) is cancelled with immediate effect and until further orders on the basis of adverse reports from agencies.”

ARY News called the cancellation of the NOC by the PML-N-led Government an “economic murder of more than 4,000 media workers associated with the media channel.” The report added that a reason is required for the cancellation of the NOC and the media channel sought for clarification on the matter.

The media outlet condemned the suspension of its transmissions, saying the network was being victimized by the Federal Government. It is pertinent to mention that the move comes after ARY News aired a controversial statement by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and party’s Chief of Staff, Dr Shehbaz Gill.

However, the channel did issue a clarification on Gill’s statement and confirmed that it was his own personal opinion and had nothing to do with the channel’s policy. Despite the clarification, the Federal Government ended up cancellation the NOC of ARY News.

This is a copy of the notification:

It bears mentioning that suspension of ARY News comes after the Sindh High Court (SHC) had ordered the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to immediately restore the channel’s transmission across Pakistan and stopped the regulator from suspending the TV channel license until the next hearing on August 17.

Read more: ARY News Transmission Suspended Across Pakistan.

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