Pak bans live broadcast by foreign channels from Abbottabad

Rezaul H Laskar
Abbottabad/Islamabad, May 8 (PTI) Pakistan's media
regulatory watchdog has barred live broadcasts by
international media from Abbottabad, where Osama bin Laden was
killed by US forces, and almost all foreign journalists on
sunday left the garrison city on the orders of authorities.
In an apparent bid to clamp down on coverage of the
incident, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority
announced late last night it was stopping "illegal uplinking
of signals and live covering (of) news from Abbottabad" by
foreign satellite TV channels.
A large number of foreign journalists, TV
camerapersons and photographers, who had been staying in
hotels and guesthouses to report from Abbotabad over the past
week, were told late yesterday to leave by noon today if they
did not have special permission to be in the city, several
foreign journalists said.
Most foreign journalists left Abbottabad today.
The local and foreign media poured into Abbottabad
shortly after the al Qaeda chief was killed by US special
forces in a pre-dawn raid on a compound near the Pakistan
Military Academy on Monday.
Officials of security agencies and the district
administration visited hotels and guesthouses and asked the
management to tell the journalists to leave if they did not
have special permission to be in Abbottabad.
Only a few foreign journalists, who are based in
Pakistan, are likely to be allowed to stay, sources said.
"We have been told by authorities to request foreign
journalists to vacate the guesthouse by noon," a manager of a
roadside guesthouse, where journalists had been staying, told
PTI on condition of anonymity.
The district administration deployed police guards
at guesthouses and hotels.
Journalists were advised to get special permission
either from the Interior Ministry or the army's public
relations wing.
PEMRA's order barring live broadcasts affected nine
foreign news channels, including CNN, BBC, Fox News, NBC
News, Al-Jazeera, Voice of America and Sky News.
The foreign channels were issued show cause notices
and asked to stop their "illegal activity immediately", said a
statement.
It further said PEMRA "issues temporary uplinking for
covering any event live from Pakistan for a specific event and
time".
Pakistan's decision to clamp down foreign
journalists is being linked to the government and military's
unease over coverage of perceived failures of security
agencies in detecting bin Laden's presence in a city located
just 120 km from Islamabad.
The media coverage has raised embarrassing questions
about how the al Qaeda chief had managed to hide in a city
that is home to several regiments and thousands of soldiers.
Authorities initially gave the media limited access
to bin Laden's compound at Bilal Town, some three kilometres
from Abbotabad city, but it was later sealed by police and the
army.
Several major international TV channels had set up
uplinking systems to send reports and a Pakistan production
house had set up a system to feed reports.
Foreign journalists were anxiously waiting to see if
bin Laden's compound would be bulldozed as reports have
suggested that officials do not want it to become a shrine for
jihadists.
Representatives of the foreign media also fanned out
to Haripur near Abbottabad yesterday and today following news
reports that bin Laden’s Yemeni widow had told investigators
that the al Qaeda chief lived in a village near Haripur before
moving to Abbottabad.