Pakistan to block Indian
content on TV, radio as tension simmers
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[October 20, 2016]
By Syed Raza Hassan
KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters)
- Pakistan will ban all Indian content on television and
radio channels from Friday, its media regulator said,
stepping up media tit-for-tat bans that followed a spike
in tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
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Tension between the arch-rivals has been high since an Indian
security force crackdown on protests in Indian-controlled
Kashmir began in July, following the killing of a young Muslim
separatist leader by security forces.
Relations worsened in September, when militants attacked an army
base in Indian-controlled Kashmir and killed 18 soldiers, a raid
New Delhi blamed on Pakistan.
Islamabad denied involvement but the diplomatic fallout, and New
Delhi's efforts to isolate Pakistan internationally, prompted
calls in India for a ban on Pakistani actors and actresses in
the country's giant Bollywood film industry.
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Pakistani cinemas responded by banning Bollywood films and as
the rhetoric against Pakistani actors in Bollywood surged,
Islamabad has responded by enforcing bans on Indian channels
popular in Pakistan.
The complete ban will start on Friday at 3 p.m. (1000 GMT),
Muhammad Tahir, the spokesman of the Pakistan Electronic Media
Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), told Reuters.
The measure goes further than the regulator's crackdown on India
media announced this month, when it vowed to enforce an existing
law that allow channels to air Indian content for just 86
minutes each day.
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The law was often flouted by entertainment channels and cable
operators airing Indian films and soap operas wildly popular in
Pakistan. The sale of Indian direct-to-home service is also
forbidden, yet common, in Pakistan.
Tahir said the latest measure would override a 2006 decree by former
President Pervez Musharraf that allowed Indian TV channels to
proliferate.
Pakistan was created as a home for the subcontinent's Muslims at the
end of British colonial rule in 1947.
Though the partition was bloody, and the neighbors have fought three
wars since, two of them over mostly Muslim Kashmir, their people
share numerous cultural links.
(Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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