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India-Pakistan
Ban on Indian TV channels strains Quetta's cable business
2006-08-06
QUETTA: Cable operators in Balochistan are facing losses as hundreds of households are cancelling subscriptions or refusing to pay monthly fees, following the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority’s (PEMRA) directive to ban Indian television channels. “Certainly, our business is being affected. But we cannot afford to squabble with PEMRA,” admitted one cable operator.

“...the decision was undertaken because Indian media posed 'a threat to the Pakistani culture'. ”
Defying PEMRA’s directives can have serious consequences for the cable companies: a fine of Rs 1 million and annulment of licence. A PEMRA insider said that the ban has been imposed under the president’s instructions. He said that the decision was undertaken because Indian media posed “a threat to the Pakistani culture”. However, most PEMRA officials thought that the threat posed by Indian media was ‘commercial’ rather than ‘cultural’: slack viewership means scanty advertisements for local channels. Sources in PEMRA said that the ban was not likely to be lifted in the near future. “The cable operators need not wait for lifting of the ban,” said a PEMRA official in Islamabad. “If they only rely on the Indian channels then they can shut their businesses,” he said.
Posted by:Fred

#2  They obviously have a French cultural attache advising them on how to become more isolationist, xenophobic, and ignorant of other cultures.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2006-08-06 13:59  

#1  How is "Pakistani culture" different to Indian Muslim culture?

Especially since many of the biggest bollywood stars are muslim?


King of Bollywood
http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,1837317,00.html

In India, Shah Rukh Khan is so famous he can't leave home without half a dozen minders. In the UK, he sells out Wembley in minutes. Emine Saner meets the world's biggest film star

In this country, few people outside Asian communities and Bollywood fans have heard of him (he sells out Wembley arena in minutes when he comes here to perform song-and-dance routines from his films).

Shah Rukh Khan (also known as "King Khan") has been in more than 50 Hindi films and has won 13 Filmfare awards, regarded as the "Bollywood Oscars". He is the biggest star in Hindi cinema and this means billions of fans (Bollywood has a global audience of 3.6 billion; Hollywood has 2.5 billion).

In India, where he lives with his wife and two children in Mumbai, he can't leave his house without six bodyguards (the hysteria that follows him makes Beatle-mania look like a librarians' convention).
Posted by: john   2006-08-06 10:09  

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