Pakistani authorities blocked the transmission of several TV channels in most parts of the country in an apparent attempt to rein in the coverage of the crisis over the suspension of top judge Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
Several private channels like Geo News, Aaj and ARY, which had extended a coverage to Chaudhry’s travels and meetings, went off air on Sunday.
‘‘The government has blocked the transmission of the Geo News TV channel across the country due to reasons best known to them,’’ said the portal of the Jang Group of newspapers.
The switch-off in case of Geo TV, according to its website, was almost countrywide while Aaj TV blackout was in Lahore and Islamabad.
It said that calls from viewers flooded Geo TV offices to know why the transmission had suddenly been suspended when ‘Meray Mutabiq’ programme was on air.
Aaj TV offices in Lahore were not aware, which programme had offended the authorities.
‘‘We have only carried the report of Geo blackout in our bulletin which might have annoyed the government media managers,’’ an Aaj representative was quoted as saying by the Dawn daily.
On Sunday, the Cable Operators Association of Pakistan (CAP) warned that they would take satellite TV channel off air if its programmes went against the ‘‘armed forces, judiciary and the integrity of Pakistan’’.
‘‘We have decided that we’ll not become part of any campaign which goes against the armed forces, judiciary and integrity of Pakistan and will virtually boycott the channels, which indulge in such acts,’’ said Khalid Shaikh, Chairman of CAP.
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070014400