By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Friday accorded his assent to the Access to the Media (Deaf) Persons Act, 2022.
The Act provides that after six months of the commencement of the Act, the government shall not allow to broadcast any news bulletin on the national broadcaster, state or private run electronic media, private television channels, cable TV or any other broadcast media without Pakistan sign language interpreters, a President House press release said.
The Act also provided that after one year of the commencement of the Act, the government shall not allow to broadcast any program, entertainment, advertisement, talk show, drama, film or any other pictorial segment on the national broadcaster, media, private television channels, cable TV or any other broadcast media without Pakistan sign language interpreters. The Act provides that the government and private owned media houses, within six months shall appoint Pakistan sign language interpreters for carrying out the purposes of this Act. The Act shall come into force at once and shall extend to the whole of Pakistan.
The bill was accepted unanimously in the Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting on June 1, 2022. It was moved by Senator Saleem Mandviwala, which cited the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and Article 19A of the Constitution.
The article mandates that the state take measures to ensure that deaf and dumb people be provided access to media, as reasons for the need for the act.
Along with this, the bill also stated that COVID-19 had “illustrated the critical need to continue working to secure this right in emergency situations and during humanitarian disasters”. The act comes into force immediately and shall extend to the entire country.
