Who owns pakistan media

In addition, the research team sent out information requests to all investigated media companies, by registered mail and email, but none except for The Print have responded so far. There is some good news — MOM was able to find owners of almost all media companies through an openly available database provided by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. The only company that remains unknown in terms of ownership and shareholding is Scroll Media Incorporation, registered in the US State of Delaware.

Consequently, the shareholding structure of the company is not available. However, these regulations are not effectively implemented, as the example of the Essel group illustrates. As the owner of Zee Media, it controls both broadcast media and distribution networks such as Dish TV and Siti cable through a web of companies. As opposed to ownership, market and audience data in the Television sector remain strictly hidden, as the industry association BARC refuses to disclose it publicly.

This comes not only as a violation of best practice internationally, but also inhibits public accountability, research and meaningful regulation, particularly concentration control. Regardless of seeming diversity and plurality, the Indian market is not only comprised of highly concentrated media markets.

Also, some of the leading outlets are controlled by individuals with political ties. As the MOM study shows, the majority of the media companies has business and political affiliations and the more into regional level one dives, the more straightforward and visible the links are.

He has been a four-time Member of Parliament of India from the state of Odisha. However, he has lost in the recent elections. These are just a few examples of convergence of politics and media. The resulting interdependence between media, business and politics presents a high risk to media freedom and pluralism in India.

One means of political leverage can be exerted by rewarding or punishing media outlets through the allocation or non-allocation of advertising by the government, like this happened recently in Jammu-and-Kashmir. This plays out at a national level, but even more critically at the State and local levels where many media outlets depend on it to survive and transparency is not guaranteed. No figures were available for government advertising on Television and the RTIs filed have yielded no results.

In addition to public spending on advertising, also the political parties invest heavily and one of, if not the largest advertiser in the country is the ruling party BJP.

Irrespective of the merits of the case, many doubt NAB is carrying out its duties honestly. It often takes action against those who question government policies. The arrest has triggered widespread criticism from journalists' bodies, rights groups and the political opposition. The Pakistan Broadcasters' Association PBA pointed out that "arresting the editor-in-chief of a media house while the case is still under inquiry… appears to be an attempt at harassment".

Jang Group is Pakistan's largest media house, with more on-the-ground reporters across the country than anyone else, giving it a clear edge in Pakistan's increasingly competitive media environment. In recent months, top anchors of its Geo television network have given government officials a hard time in interviews on a number of occasions.

Requesting anonymity, a veteran journalist in Lahore told the BBC that while there may be some truth in NAB's allegations, "there's no doubt it's a selective move because evidence of illegal financial activities by owners of the so-called 'friendly' media have also been cropping up from time to time but NAB doesn't seem to be bothered".

Not very - the country comes way down press freedom indexes. The media has come under increased censorship since when the military was accused of rigging national elections to bring Prime Minister Imran Khan's PTI party to power. But backdoor moves to quell media voices had begun much earlier. In , a top Geo talk show host Hamid Mir was shot and badly wounded.

No-one was ever brought to justice for the attack, and many suspected he was being punished for his vigorous coverage of missing persons in Balochistan province, where the army has fought an armed separatist insurgency for more than a decade. Most disappearances are blamed on the military. Pakistan's media have stopped covering the issue.

In , a number of social media bloggers critical of religious groups and Pakistan's powerful military went missing for several weeks. They were released afterwards, and most went abroad. The following year, a well-known journalist and social media activist, Taha Siddiqui, who had been warned by the military authorities a number of times, was attacked on an Islamabad road in broad daylight.

He was able to escape from the scene but has since left the country and is living in France. Since , the media has come under a more comprehensive censorship. This includes threats to individual journalists, and briefly or completely shutting TV channels or influencing cable operators to demote them in the channels list so fewer viewers find them. The English print media is urban-centric and generally tends to be more progressive.

There are currently no Pakistani English-language TV channels or radio stations. Regional-language media boast varying level of influence confined largely to their specific regions. The footprint of the mass circulation press has been small in Pakistan, and it seems to be shrinking further amid the growth of the electronic media. Political reporting forms the bulk of the coverage of many print and TV news outlets.

This has been most pronounced around elections and important judicial decisions with implications for political entities. Live and prolonged TV coverage of rallies benefits political parties. Pakistan has long had some tradition of political parallelism. Even in absence of direct ownership of or connections to political entities, an inclination in the news media content to support one political party or another can sometimes be discerned, be it for ideological reasons, economic interests or other considerations.

At times, some TV talk show hosts have been well-known leaders of political parties and have used their programmes to defend and promote the policies of their parties and censure those of other parties. However, growing Internet penetration has not necessarily led to Internet freedom. Fundamental freedoms for citizens and the media in Pakistan have generally been far from assured. The print and electronic media require official permission or licences in order to start operating.