MarketMediagate
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Mediagate

The Mediagate, is a common term describing a period of political competition in Pakistan, which eventually led to a media scandal between some mainstream televised news channels, hosted by their anchors and correspondents. On 15 June 2012, an anonymous off-air camera discussion was released on YouTube, it quickly grasped the media industry and attracted nationwide attention.

Historical background
History of electronic media Since the early 1990s, the partial economic boom which resulted by the economic liberalisation, led the rise of the media industry in the country. Since the early 1990s, the privately owned NTM, together with STN, faced generic competition with state-owed PTV over on television ratings and series of commercial programming. Since 2007, the news channels have covered many high-profile stories and exposed large-scale corruption cases in the state-owned enterprises. In a media research studies conducted and published by Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS), the competition within each channels, electronic media, television stations, and media houses, is greater compared to the printmedia in Pakistan. Since 1999, the printmedia industry greatly reduced in large number, even there was no competition within the printmedia industry. The businessman, Arsalan Iftikhar, is the son of the famed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and claimed that payments were made to Arsalan Iftikhar over the several years to influence over on the Supreme court cases and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) investigations. Riaz's statements were also confirmed by leading lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, who claimed to know the existence of such business meetings and payment, and also shared it with Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry a while ago. Riaz also alleged that between 2009 and 2011, Arsalan Iftikhar sponsored his trips to London with credit cards to be used at his discretion. The show aired on the TV channel on Wednesday. On 16 June 2012, PEMRA and Supreme Court launched full investigation against the Dunya News headed by two supreme court justices. The Supreme Court of Pakistan issued legal notices to Dunya News and its political correspondents on 29 June 2012. The rivalry within the news channels heated up when the Aaj TV broadcast and televised the documented records payments allegedly made to the country's top 19 senior-political journalists by Malik Riaz. Accusations and response from news channels The Dunya News management immediately sacked Luqman while his fellow anchorwoman Meher Bukhari was asked to resign within 24 hours or get sacked. Accusations and the use of aggressive journalism was employed, when Dunya News televised the accusations against its rival Geo News, claiming how the channel had lied to people at several occasions and backtracked, and talking to the people on the streets who instantly supported Dunya News for its upright stance and morals, all is still not well on the air waves. Other media outlets and television channels went head-to-head for PEMRA's top channel ratings and levelled accusations, and aired talk shows against each other. Raza Rumi of Jinnah Institute quoted to New York Times that "the credibility of the electronic media is at stake. This is starting to look like the scam of the year." The listed anchors refuted the allegations levelled up against them. Mehar Bukhari threatened to direct the case of her innocence to supreme court. Other alleged benefactors, Nusrat Javed called Riaz's character as "flawed" and quickly denied the bribery allegations. On a live TV show, Today with Kamran Khan, its host, Kamran Khan, strongly denied the allegations and quoted: "I will leave this profession if proven guilty of bribery" ==End of Mediagate==
End of Mediagate
Supreme Court intervention After the news of Mediagate and accusations against each other aired on television channels, the senior justices of the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry took independent sou mote actions against Malik Riaz and the television channels. Constituting a judicial bench to hear this case, the supreme court actions also took notice of the Mediagate after the leak of the footage of which Riaz claimed to have paid television stations for vast media interests in the legal cases. ==Aftermath==
Aftermath
Naming Convention While rumours swirled among the Capital insiders, the public at large was kept in the dark until recently when a video of Shaheen Sehbai talking about it surfaced on YouTube and forced the mainstream media to finally discuss it on air here is the video link of Shaheen Sehbai's interview on YouTube There many names attributed of this scandalous incident. The media first reported this scandal as Arsalangate (in reference to Arsalan Iftikhar) and Bahriagate in respect to Malik Riaz. Legacy Despite the allegations on news channels, the news channels altogether greatly questioned the credibility of the payments made to the allegedly listed journalists. Television hosts, Hamid Mir, Shahid Masood, Meher Bokhari, Mushtaq Minhas, Nusrat Javed, Talat Hussain, Hasan Nisar, and Mubashir Luqman, denied all the allegations and terming it as "fraudulent". According to the New York Times, the competition for ratings is even more tough and fierce during the holy month of Ramadan among Pakistan's television stations. ==See also==
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