News Broadcasting
Election panel orders Pak TV, radio to curb bias in coverage
In the subcontinent, government controlled media has more often than not faced accusations of biased coverage. And in this regard, Pakistan’s state media must certainly classify as among the worst villains.
Therefore it remains to be seen whether an order issued late on Thursday by chief election commissioner (CEC) Irshad Hasan, following complaints raised by the opposition Pakistan People Party led by Benazir Bhutto, will have more than lip service value.
CEC Hasan’s order followed PPP complaints that state-run media was maligning the party and its leader Benazir Bhutto, French news agency AFP reported.
The order states that radio and TV authorities must ensure “that the election coverage is not biased in favour of any political party,” the AFP report states.
The PPP is spearheading a 15-party alliance of opposition parties campaigning against General Pervez Musharraf since he took power in a bloodless coup in October 1999. Parliamentary and senate elections on 10 October will be the first since Musharraf took over.
News Broadcasting
News TV viewership jumps 33 per cent as West Asia war draws audiences
BARC Week 8 data shows news share rising to 8 per cent despite T20 World Cup
NEW DELHI:Â Even as individual television news channel ratings remain under a temporary pause, the genre itself is seeing a clear surge in audience attention.
According to the latest data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India, television news recorded a 33 per cent jump in genre share in Week 8 of 2026, covering February 28 to March 6.
The news genre accounted for 8 per cent of total television viewership during the week, up from 6 per cent the previous week. The spike in attention coincided with escalating geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which have kept global headlines firmly fixed on West Asia.
The rise is notable because it came at a time when cricket was dominating television screens. The high-stakes stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, including the Super 8 fixtures and semi-finals, were being broadcast during the same period.
Despite the cricket frenzy, viewers appeared to be toggling between sport and global affairs, boosting the overall share of news programming.
The surge in genre share comes even as the government has enforced a one-month pause on publishing ratings for individual news channels. The move followed regulatory scrutiny of the television ratings ecosystem.
While channel-level rankings remain temporarily out of sight, the genre-level data suggests that when global tensions escalate, audiences continue to turn to television news for real-time updates.
