ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has again started boycott of Geo News Television after bowing to pressure and criticism from party workers and supporters.

 

A source in the PTI media cell tells JournalismPakistan.com that an earlier boycott was ended following personal requests by Hamid Mir, anchorperson of ‘Capital Talk.’

 

The party officially ended boycott of the channel on Feb 16 after eight-and-a-half months when its central leader Shafqat Mahmood participated in Mir’s program.

 

The boycott ended following the decision of the party’s core committee as it said, “on the request of Geo-Jang Group, PTI had been monitoring the shift to fairer reporting on PTI and an end to personal attacks on the chairman in the group’s print and electronic outputs over the last three weeks. It was found that there had been a shift towards more balanced reporting on PTI.”

 

The party said that in light of these factors, it was decided in the core committee meeting to allow “selected spokespersons” to begin appearing on Geo talk shows and give beepers to Geo on PTI positions on national issues/unfolding events.

 

“We faced a barrage of criticism from our workers and social media activists over ending the boycott; so we are left with no option but to stop sending our party members to  Geo talk shows as guests,” the source said.