Pakistan Suspends Geo News for 15 Days Over “Offensive” Religious Broadcast During Muharram
Pakistan’s media regulator has suspended the broadcast licence of television channel Geo News for 15 days over content aired during a programme marking Muharram, one of the most sensitive periods in the Islamic calendar. The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) ordered the suspension on Saturday, June 27, with immediate effect, over a special 10th Muharram broadcast it said was liable to hurt viewers’ religious sentiments. Global SecurityLSE
In an order issued on June 28 to the chief executive officer of Independent Media Corporation, Geo News’s parent company, PEMRA said the licence had been suspended for 15 days under Section 30 of the Pemra Ordinance, 2002. PEMRA said the broadcast contained religious imagery inconsistent with the country’s religious, social and cultural values and has referred the matter to its Complaints Council for further proceedings. LSEbritannica
What Was Broadcast
The programme in question was “Safar-e-Ishq,” aired during Geo News’s special Muharram transmission. PEMRA said the documentary, aired on Muharram 10, contained “religious visualization” that violated broadcasting regulations and had the potential to hurt viewers’ religious sentiments. Depictions of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and other revered Islamic figures are a highly charged issue in Pakistan, where mass protests have broken out over cartoons published in Western countries. britannica + 2
The regulator said its monitoring wing had found the special transmission to be a serious regulatory concern because of religious, cultural and social sensitivities, and that the aired material was inconsistent with a licensee’s obligations under Sections 20(b), (c), (d) and (f) of the ordinance. Section 20(b) requires broadcasters to preserve national, cultural, social and religious values as well as principles of public policy enshrined in the Constitution. LSE
Geo News’s Response
Geo News has apologised and issued a statement on Sunday saying the material had been aired in error and did not reflect the channel’s editorial position or beliefs. The channel said the footage “depicted certain rituals adopted by a limited number of people in Iraq and some other Middle Eastern countries,” and that “its purpose was not to represent, endorse, or promote any broader religious point of view.” Geo News added: “This content was neither produced by Geo News nor was its broadcast carried out with any intention or purpose. We wish to clarify that Geo News remains firmly committed to its policy of respecting the widely accepted beliefs and sensitivities of the Muslim Ummah.” GMA News Online + 2
The broadcaster said the content was removed as soon as the matter came to its notice and that action had been taken against those involved in its inclusion, with clarifications and an apology broadcast before public reaction over the programme had even emerged. Geo News, one of Pakistan’s largest private television channels, said the content in question had been removed from all its platforms. PEMRA also directed Geo News to hold an internal inquiry into editorial, monitoring and compliance “lapse” and to submit its findings to the regulator. LSE + 2
A Government Warning on Religious Sensitivity
Federal Information Minister Atta Tarar said religious matters require utmost caution and warned against dramatised depictions of religious events. The suspension applies across satellite and all distribution networks and platforms with immediate effect. britannicaGlobal Security
Regional and Global Impact
Pakistan has faced persistent criticism over press freedom, with television channels periodically facing regulatory action, suspensions and transmission restrictions. Reporters Without Borders ranked Pakistan 153rd out of 180 countries in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index. The case lands amid a broader regional pattern of governments invoking religious sensitivity and public order concerns to restrict broadcast media, with neighbouring Afghanistan’s Taliban administration having shut down a Kabul television station, Tamadon TV, during the same Muharram period, citing similar grounds. GMA News Online
The episode also illustrates the particular regulatory weight attached to religious broadcasting in Pakistan, where the legal framework governing electronic media explicitly requires licensees to preserve constitutionally enshrined religious, cultural, and social values — a standard that, as this case shows, regulators have applied even to content drawn from documentary footage of religious rituals practised elsewhere in the Muslim world, rather than to original editorial commentary by the channel itself.
Background
PEMRA, established under the Pemra Ordinance of 2002, is Pakistan’s primary electronic media regulator, responsible for licensing and overseeing television and radio broadcasters operating in the country. Geo News, operated by Independent Media Corporation, is one of Pakistan’s largest and most widely watched private news channels. Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, is observed with particular solemnity by Pakistan’s Shia Muslim community and carries heightened sensitivity nationwide, given the month’s association with the commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Hussain at the Battle of Karbala. Pakistan has a history of significant social and political mobilisation around perceived offences to religious sentiment, including large-scale protests in past years over religious depictions published abroad.
What Happens Next
Geo News is expected to comply with PEMRA’s directive to conduct an internal inquiry into the editorial and compliance failures that led to the broadcast, with findings to be submitted to the regulator. The matter has been referred to PEMRA’s Complaints Council for further proceedings, which could result in additional regulatory action depending on the council’s findings. The 15-day suspension is expected to remain in effect across all of Geo News’s distribution platforms, with the channel’s broadcast licence subject to reinstatement once the suspension period concludes, barring further regulatory developments.
