Government throttles Geo TV by blocking its profitable sports channel

The operations of the opposition Geo TV network’s profitable sports channel, Geo Super, have been suspended in Pakistan on the orders of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), which regulates TV stations, cable operators, Internet and mobile phones, and is responsible for developing access to information. “We are worried about the government’s growing harassment of certain media, especially those owned by the opposition Jang Group, which include Geo TV,” Reporters Without Borders. “We condemn any action designed to throttle this network by gradually stripping it of its main sources of income, and we urge the PEMRA to limit itself to its primary job of controlling licences rather than becoming a government censorship tool.” Geo News, which is also part of the Geo TV network, has accused the PEMRA of blocking Geo Super’s operations as part of a continuing campaign to harass news media critical of the government. The money-making sports channel is a key source of revenue for the network. At a news conference yesterday, PEMRA’s acting chairman, Abdul Jabba, blamed the fact that Geo Super has its headquarters in nearby Dubai. He said Geo Super was registered as an international channel, not a national channel, and therefore “does not have rights to transmit from Pakistan.” Geo Super also "does not have the right to cover any event in Pakistan," he added. Geo News has often been the target of government harassment and intimidation in the past because of its critical stance.