The ratings of electronic media outlets will now be a responsibility of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.
The top court directed the media watchdog to gather viewership data from ratings agencies, display it on its website, and use it to assign ratings independently.
The directive was issued by a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar in response to a petition filed by Bol TV over alleged non-issuance of ratings to it.
The court maintained that the verdict was aimed at discouraging manipulation of data and ratings process to favour powerful players.
In the previous hearing, the court had asked Pemra to make recommendations in the matter. The media watchdog submitted its recommendations during Thursday’s hearing, after which the court ruled that it should from now onwards receive data from rating agencies on a daily basis, which should be published on its website and used to rate media outlets for advertisements.
The court clarified that only registered companies would be able to send data to Pemra.
Furthermore, the court also clarified that the Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) will have nothing to do with the ratings, nor will any of its members serve on the Pemra’s board of governors.
Afterwards, Pemra retracted a contempt-of-court notice against Medialogic, a ratings company. The court also withdrew an order to have the company’s offices sealed.
At this, Bol TV counsel Shahab Sarki objected and held that allowing Medialogic to submit ratings to Pemra could ‘lead to the formation of a cartel once again’.
The court rejected the plea, saying that the matter had been settled.
Published in Daily Times, September 28th 2018.
