Nick (Pakistan) - Censorship and Filtering

Censorship and Filtering

In 2005, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority issued an order regarding the ban of several non-private channels because of their Urdu dubbed programs having a little blend of Hindi. Later on, the Cartoon Network and another channel of apparently said Hindi versions had been switched to English versions on the Pemra's instructions but the Urdu (having Hindi blend) feed of the channels were back after few months. In early 2010, PEMRA again issued a notice against the non-private channels which resulted in a complete ban of Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network's Pakistan feed. Once again, the flamed issue was the Hindi-Urdu dubbed shows on its schedule line up and the Government's demand for a private kids-channel affiliated with PTV instead. The ban stayed and was not lifted till the end of the July 2011.

At last on August 1, an announcement was made by the Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Firdous Ashiq Awan. She said ‘Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, have been granted permission to air programmes in Pakistan’. But at the closure, she expressed her interest in a private TV channel once again and said ‘The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority will accommodate private TV channel if someone wished to launch channel for children.’