Media of Pakistan
Encyclopedia
Media in Pakistan provides information on television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

, radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

, cinema
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

s, and magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

s in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

.

Regulation

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA, formerly RAMBO - Regulatory Authority for Media and Broadcast Organizations) was formed in 2002 to "facilitate and promote a free, fair and independent electronic media", including opening the broadcasting market in Pakistan. By the end of 2009 PEMRA had:
  • issued 78 satellite TV licenses;
  • issued "landing rights" to 28 TV channels operating from abroad, with more under consideration;
  • issued licenses for 129 FM radio stations, including 18 non-commercial licenses to leading universities offering courses mass communication and six licenses in Azad Jammu and Kashmir;
  • registered 2,346 cable TV systems serving an estimated 8 million households; and
  • issued six MMDS (Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service), two Internet protocol TV (IPTV), and two mobile TV
    Mobile TV
    Mobile television usually means television watched on a small handheld device. It may be a pay TV service broadcast on mobile phone networks or received free-to-air via terrestrial television stations from either regular broadcast or a special mobile TV transmission format...

     licenses, with more under consideration.


PEMRA is also involved in media censorship and occasionally halts broadcasts and closes media outlets. Publication or broadcast of “anything which defames or brings into ridicule the head of state, or members of the armed forces, or executive, legislative or judicial organs of the state,” as well as any broadcasts deemed to be “false or baseless” can bring jail terms of up to three years, fines of up to 10 million rupees (US$165,000), and license cancellation.

On November 2011, Pakistani cable television operators block BBC World News TV channel after broadcast a documentary, entitled Secret Pakistan.

Television

The first television station began broadcasting from Lahore in November 1963. Television in Pakistan remained the government's exclusive control until 1990 when Shalimar Television Network (STN) and Network Television Marketing (NTM) launched Pakistan’s first private TV channel. Foreign satellite TV channels were added during the 1990s.

Traditionally, the government-owned Pakistan Television Corporation
Pakistan Television Corporation
The Pakistan Television Corporation is Pakistan's national television broadcaster. The first live transmission of PTV began on November 26, 1964, in Lahore...

 (PTV) has been the dominant media player in Pakistan. The PTV channels are controlled by the government and opposition views are not given much time. The past decade has seen the emergence of several private TV channels showing news and entertainment, such as GEO TV
Geo TV
Geo TV or Geo Television is a Pakistani television network, founded by Mr. Mir Shakil ur Rehman in May 2002 and owned by Independent Media Corporation. The channel began test transmission on 14 August 2002, with regular transmission beginning 1 October 2002...

, AAJ TV
AAJ TV
AAJ TV is a 24 hour Pakistani news television channel. Aaj in English means "Today".-Channel and its Programmes:AAJ News was initially started on March 23, 2005 by the Business Recorder Group...

, ARY Digital
ARY Digital
ARY Digital, a subsidiary of the ARY Group, is a popular Pakistani television network available in Pakistan, the Middle East, North America and Europe. The ARY Group of companies is a Dubai-based holding company founded by a Pakistani businessman, Abdul Razzak Yaqoob . The network caters to the...

, HUM
Hum TV
Hum TV is a 24-hour Pakistani entertainment TV channel based in Karachi. It is the first brand of Eye Television Network Limited, Pakistan. Hum TV began its transmission on January 17, 2005.-Serials:* Manay Na Ye Dil * Akhri Barish...

, MTV Pakistan
MTV Pakistan
Music Television Pakistan is the Pakistani subsidiary of MTV, a cable television network owned by Viacom Inc. headquartered in New York. The Pakistan franchise has been set up in collaboration with Pakistan's first satellite channel media group known as Indus Media Group . Indus TV is Pakistan's...

, and others. Traditionally the bulk of TV shows have been plays or soap operas, some of them critically acclaimed. Various American, European, Asian TV channels, and movies are available to a majority of the population via Cable TV. Television accounted for almost half of the advertising expenditure in Pakistan in 2002.

Radio

The government-owned Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) was formed on 14 August 1947, the day of Pakistani independence. It was a direct descendant of the Indian Broadcasting Company, which later became All India Radio
All India Radio
All India Radio , officially known since 1956 as Akashvani , is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati. Established in 1936, it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster. All India Radio is one of the largest radio networks...

. At independence, Pakistan had radio stations in Dhaka
Dhaka
Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...

, Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...

, and Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....

. A major programme of expansion saw new stations open at Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...

 and Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi , locally known as Pindi, is a city in the Pothohar region of Pakistan near Pakistan's capital city of Islamabad, in the province of Punjab. Rawalpindi is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad...

 in 1948, and a new broadcasting house at Karachi in 1950. This was followed by new radio stations at Hyderabad (1951), Quetta
Quetta
is the largest city and the provincial capital of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. Known as the "Fruit Garden of Pakistan" due to the diversity of its plant and animal wildlife, Quetta is home to the Hazarganji Chiltan National Park, which contains some of the rarest species of wildlife in the...

 (1956), a second station at Rawalpindi (1960), and a receiving centre at Peshawar (1960). During the 1980s and 1990s the corporation expanded its network to many cities and towns of Pakistan to provide greater service to the local people. In October 1998, Radio Pakistan started its first FM transmission.

Today, there are over a hundred public and private radio stations due to more liberal media regulations. FM broadcast licenses are awarded to parties that commit to open FM broadcasting stations in at least one rural city along with the major city of their choice.

The press is much more restricted in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas
Federally Administered Tribal Areas
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas are a semi-autonomous tribal region in the northwest of Pakistan, lying between the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and the neighboring country of Afghanistan. The FATA comprise seven Agencies and six FRs...

 (FATA), where independent radio is allowed only with permission from the government.

Cinema

The indigenous movie industry, based in Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...

 and known as "Lollywood", produces roughly forty feature-length films a year.

In 2008 the Pakistani government partially lifted its 42-year ban on screening Indian movies in Pakistan.

Newspapers and magazines

In 1947 only four major Muslim-owned newspapers existed in the area now called Pakistan: Pakistan Times
Pakistan Times
Pakistan Times is an independent online daily newspaper. It is published from Islamabad.-External links:**...

, Zamindar, Nawa-i-Waqt
Nawa-i-Waqt
Nawa-i-Waqt is an Urdu daily newspaper in Pakistan. Nawa-i-Waqt started its publishing on March 23, 1940 under the leadership of Hameed Nizami. The tradition is continued by his brother Majid Nizami. Nawa-i-Waqt is one of the largest circulating newspapers in the country...

, and Civil and Military Gazette
Civil and Military Gazette
The Civil and Military Gazette was a daily English language newspaper founded in 1872 in British India. It was published from Lahore, Simla and Karachi, some times simultaneously, until its closure in 1963.-History:...

. A number of Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 papers moved to Pakistan, including Dawn
Dawn (newspaper)
Dawn is Pakistan's oldest and most widely read English-language newspaper. One of the country's two largest English-language dailies, it is the flagship of the Dawn Group of Newspapers, published by Pakistan Herald Publications, which also owns the Herald, a magazine, the evening paper The Star and...

, which began publishing daily in Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...

 in 1947, the Morning News, and the Urdu-language dailies Jang
Daily Jang
The Daily Jang is an Urdu newspaper based in Pakistan. It is the oldest newspaper of Pakistan in continuous publication since its foundation in 1939. Its current Group Chief Executive & Editor-in-Chief is Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman....

 and Anjam. By the early 2000s, 1,500 newspapers and journals existed in Pakistan.

In the early 21st century, as in the rest of the world, the number of print outlets in Pakistan declined precipitously, but total circulation numbers increased. From 1994 to 1997, the total number of daily, monthly, and other publications increased from 3,242 to 4,455, but had dropped to just 945 by 2003 with most of the decline occurring in the Punjab Province
Punjab (Pakistan)
Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 45% of the country's total population. Forming most of the Punjab region, the province is bordered by Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the Pakistani province of Sindh to the...

. However, from 1994 to 2003 total print circulation increased substantially, particularly for dailies (3 million to 6.2 million). And after the low point in 2003 the number of publications grew to 1279 in 2004, to 1997 in 2005, 1467 in 2006, 1820 in 2007, and 1199 in 2008.

Newspapers and magazines are published in 11 languages; most in Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

 and Sindhi
Sindhi language
Sindhi is the language of the Sindh region of Pakistan that is spoken by the Sindhi people. In India, it is among 22 constitutionally recognized languages, where Sindhis are a sizeable minority. It is spoken by 53,410,910 people in Pakistan, according to the national government's Statistics Division...

, but English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

-language publications are numerous. Most print media are privately owned, but the government controls the Associated Press of Pakistan
Associated Press of Pakistan
Associated Press of Pakistan is a government-operated national news agency of Pakistan. It is not associated with the Associated Press agency .-Lack of financial resources:...

, one of the major news agencies. From 1964 into the early 1990s, the National Press Trust acted as the government's front to control the press. The state, however, no longer publishes daily newspapers; the former Press Trust sold or liquidated its newspapers and magazines in the early 1990s.

The press is generally free and has played an active role in national elections, but journalists often exercise self-censorship
Self-censorship
Self-censorship is the act of censoring or classifying one's own work , out of fear of, or deference to, the sensibilities of others, without overt pressure from any specific party or institution of authority...

 as a result of arrests and intimidation by government and societal actors. The press is much more restricted in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas
Federally Administered Tribal Areas
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas are a semi-autonomous tribal region in the northwest of Pakistan, lying between the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and the neighboring country of Afghanistan. The FATA comprise seven Agencies and six FRs...

 (FATA), where no newspapers are published, and in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, where publications need special permission from the regional government to operate and pro-independence publications are generally prohibited.

News agencies

Pakistan's major news agencies include:
  • the government controlled Associated Press of Pakistan
    Associated Press of Pakistan
    Associated Press of Pakistan is a government-operated national news agency of Pakistan. It is not associated with the Associated Press agency .-Lack of financial resources:...

     (APP);
  • Sharp Eye(International News Agency)
  • Pakistan Press International
    Pakistan Press International
    Pakistan Press International is a news agency founded in June 1956 as Pakistan Press Association . The name was changed in 1968. It was first started by Mr. Muzzam Ali, the Chief Editor of Associated Press of Pakistan . The agency objective was to provide competition to APP's monopoly. It began...

     (PPI), originally the Pakistan Press Association;
  • Associated Press Service (APS);
  • the United Press of Pakistan (UPP);
  • International Press Of Pakistan (IPP); and
  • the National News Agency (NNA).

A number of smaller news agencies have come into existence, including Independent News Pakistan (INP), Pakistan News Network International (PNNI), Sharp Eye, South Asian News Agency (SANA), Online International News Network (OINN), and Worldwide News agency (WNA).

Sharp Eye

Sharp Eye is Pakistan's independent international news agency established in January 2000. With the aim to provide true news to T.V channels, national as well as international newspapers on modern lines following the modern and latest standards; “Sharp Eye” is working under the supervision of its founder Mian Muhammad Azhar Amin. He is renowned Journalist of Pakistan and has the experience of working for Pakistani as well as foreign Newspapers, News Agencies and a TV Channel. In the light of his experiences he felt the need for the establishment of an independent news agency that could be a source for presenting true news to media all over the world. He is active Journalist Since 1989.
The agency is successfully providing news service to almost all national and regional newspapers published in various languages as well as International newspapers of different countries. In addition to this, it also provides services to TV channels. It has a well-knit information network with its headquarter in Lahore. Sharp Eye has a large network of correspondents, reporters and stringers throughout Pakistan and also has correspondents in the main cities and capitals of the world.

Sharp Eye’s Website is attracting more and more readers thus increasing the number of its viewers day by day. The button, “Today’s Newspaper”, is linked with Pakistan’s first web based daily newspaper, www.internetakhbar.com which is being uploaded daily with latest news in English, Urdu and Arabic under the editorship of its owner and Chief Editor Mian Azhar Amin. Pakistan’s Leading newspapers have picked so many exclusive stories from “internetakhbar.com”. Many breaking news also goes to Sharp Eye's credit and these news items were prominently displayed in media. Sharp Eye is first Pakistani news agency which started column service to newspapers from 12 th june 2011.

In fact Sharp Eye is the very first news agency of its kind as it has commenced services for the electronic media, web newspapers and evening newspapers too. Sharp Eye has started Production House to provide different programs and news to TV Channels. Chief Editor of the agency, Mian Azhar Amin, has produced and hosted a program on a TV channel with the title “Sharp Eye” and this unique program has earned popularity and fame world wide as it disclosed the corruption of various governmental and private organizations. He also had to face irreparable damages, attacks and enmity of corrupt people, as a penalty, for publishing/releasing true news against the corrupt mafia in Military Establishment agencies including ISI, IB, Police, political, private and government sector too. He has been couragouly facing state terrorism of Military Establishment /Agencies since 1999.

www.sharpeye.pk
www.sharpeye.us

See also

  • Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists
    Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists
    The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists often referred to as The PFUJ is the first journalistic association of South Asia, representing journalists of an entire country; Pakistan...

  • Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors
    Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors
    The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors has worked since its foundation in 1957 as the combined body of Newspaper Editors in Pakistan to campaign for defence of press freedom and the right of access to information in the service of democratic practice and strengthening of democratic institutions...

  • Pakistan Press Foundation
    Pakistan Press Foundation
    The Pakistan Press Foundation was established in 1967 by the news agency Pakistan Press International and operated until 1974, when it had to suspend operations due to the political environment then prevailing in the country...

  • Pakistan Post
    Pakistan Post
    Pakistan Post is a state enterprise dedicated to providing wide range of postal products and public services in Pakistan. It is the largest postal service in the country...

  • Telecommunications in Pakistan
    Telecommunications in Pakistan
    Telecommunications in Pakistan describes the overall environment for the growing mobile telecommunications, telephone, and Internet markets in Pakistan.In 2008 Pakistan was the world’s third fastest growing telecommunications market...

  • Internet in Pakistan
    Internet in Pakistan
    The Internet in Pakistan has been available since the early 1990s. According to the International Telecommunications Union there were 133,900 Internet users in 2000 or just 0.1% of the 164 million people in Pakistan. By 2006 use had grown to 12 million users or 7.2% of the population...

  • Censorship in Pakistan
    Censorship in Pakistan
    The Pakistani Constitution limits Censorship in Pakistan, but allows "reasonable restrictions in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of Pakistan or public order or morality". Press freedom in Pakistan is limited by official censorship that restricts critical reporting and by the high...

  • Internet censorship in Pakistan
    Internet censorship in Pakistan
    Internet censorship in Pakistan is government control of information sent and received using the Internet.- Overview :The OpenNet Initiative listed Internet filtering in Pakistan as substantial in the social and conflict/security areas, as selective in the Internet tools area, and as suspected in...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK