The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has prohibited all television channels from airing news or reports on the F
-9 Park rape case in order to protect the victim’s identity, it emerged on Tuesday. On Feb 2, a first information report (FIR) was registered at Islamabad’s Margalla police station under Section 376 (punishment for rape). According to the complainant, she had gone to the park along with a male colleague when two men stopped them at gunpoint and took them towards a jungle.
She said the men beat her up, raped her and told her to “not come to the park at this time”.
In a notification issued on F
eb 5, PEMRA noted that few
satellite television channels were running reports with regard to the case wherein the identity of the survivor was revealed. “This is a violation of clause 8 of Pemra Electronic Media (
Programmes and Advertisements) Code of Conduct 2015. “While exercising powers conferred under Section 27 (a) of the PEMRA Ordinance, 2002, as amended by Pemra (Amendment) Act 2007, broadcast/rebroadcast of news/reports with regard to F
-9 Park Islamabad incident is PROHIBITED, with immediate effect,” the notification said. In the case of non-compliance, it warned, the licence of the television channel may be suspend
ed without any show cause notice in the public interest along with other enabling provisions of law.
The F-9 rape case has sparked an outrage across the country. A day earlier, the National Assembly Deputy Speaker Zahid Akram Durrani directed the police chief to take action against the culprits and submit a report in the house within 24 hours. So far, the police have been unable to arrest the perpetrators. The investigators have, however, issued a sketch of one of the suspects and circulated it to get help in the identification of the culprits. Police also said that they were working on geo-fencing to trace the culprits. A forensic team also visited the crime scene four days after the incident to collect evidence, they added.
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