PBC-VOA cooperation as per law

ISLAMABAD (PR) A spokesperson for Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation has categorically rebutted a misleading news item published in daily TheNation on October 27, 2009 about PBC-VOA agreement.
The spokesperson said the professional and technical cooperation between PBC and VOA is in accordance with the Pakistani law and rules of business. He also maintained that the agreement in question is one of the many ventures with other international media organizations being steered by PBC by following the due process.
PBC has a history of cooperation with BBC, China Radio International, VOA, and is pursuing important agreements with Turkish Radio, China Radio International and other important media organisations to modernise and revamp its technical and programming operations, said the spokesperson.
He said the VOA programmes carried over PBC network are operational under a strict regime of checks and balances, monitoring and editorial guidelines to safeguard the national interests of Pakistan. It was further explained that any violation of the agreement would result in the unilateral cancellation of the agreement by invoking the breaking clause inserted in the agreement.
Giving a background, the spokesperson said the agreement is the result of more than a year of hard work by the professionals from both sides and has been vetted by the experts at different tiers of the government of Pakistan prior to ratification by the federal cabinet. This is not done at the whim of the Director General, who follows the rules and procedures strictly.
The spokesperson said the professional cooperation between PBC and VOA is decades old which included programmes and staff exchange. In 2004, PBC carried VOA programming on its FM network, the spokesperson said. This is besides the fact that VOA programming beams the entire Pakistan for 12 hours everyday with the help of two powerful transmitters.
If all these have not hurt our national interests, how a soft program, running under Pakistan law will hurt us, the spokesperson asked.
The spokesperson said, the PBC has been working hard to revamp and uplift its operations and image and added that two new major agreements with China Radio International will be signed very soon. The spokesperson said Pakistani and Chinese broadcasters working in both capitals continue programming in both Urdu and Chinese languages, something the author of the report should have checked before embarking on an ill-informed and wild road of imaginations and paranoia.