ISLAMABAD -  Chairman Pakistan Electronic Media Regularity Authority Absar Alam yesterday said that the authority would continue its struggle against sacred cows in media, however, only some anchors as well as TV channels have become “promoters of hatred”.

The Chairman PEMRA said this while chairing a high level meeting to review the performance of PEMRA.

He said that all-out efforts are underway to enhance performance of the regulatory authority and important decisions will be made to improve the performance of the media.

Referring to a recent study, Absar Alam said that some TV channels and anchors had badly confused the country’s youth as Pakistan was among the countries having highest youth population.

He said some media houses were not doing journalism and some anchors have become political actors. Some TV anchors were daily predicting war between India and Pakistanm he said adding in case of Indo-Pak war same anchors should be sent to battlefield’s front row.

Absar also said that the Council of Complaints (CoC) has more an important role to play and such meetings should be held twice a year as Pemra needs persistent guidance and feedback.

The meeting strongly condemned insulting behaviour of a former bureaucrat with Chairman CoC Lahore, Dr Mehdi Hassan, in Lahore the other day. The Punjab government has already constituted a committee to probe the incident.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Mehdi said the present Pakistan was no more the country of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, rather it was the country of General (retd) Zia-ul-Haq.

There was a major need proper training of journalists and other staff in media houses.

He said that channel owners should be bound to ensure training facilities to their reporters, camerapersons and other staff in addition to strict monitoring of contents.