LONDON – Pakistan’s leading television channel ARY has made its way back to the United Kingdom months after closure of its transmission.
British broadcast media watchdog Ofcom had revoked licences of all six channels owned by the ARY Network back in February.
“The ARY Network held six Television Licensable Content Service (‘TLCS’) licences granted under Part 1 of the Broadcasting Act 1990. These licences were used to broadcast the following channels: ARY Digital, ARY QTV, ARY News, ARY World News, QTV–Islamic Education Channel and ARY Entertainment.” said a statement by Ofcom.
“ARY Network had ceased trading on Dec 31, 2016, and had been placed into voluntary liquidation on Jan 12, 2017,” it added.
But on Wednesday, CEO ARY Network Salman Iqbal took to Twitter announcing that the channel was back on Sky Network for Britishers.
https://twitter.com/Salman_ARY/status/847120600959074304
ARY hit a bad patch when it lost a case against Geo television owner Mir Shakil Ur Rehman in December last year. A British court ruled that ARY had defamed Jang group’s chief editor Mir Shakilur Rehman by alleging that he had links with the CIA, Mossad and RAW. It also accused him of committing blasphemy and taking covert funds from foreign governments in order to promote their agenda.
Besides having to pay £185,000 in damages, the network also faces legal costs of over £2 million. And, in a legal first in the UK, it was told to broadcast the summary of the judgement against it.
