Journalist reacts angrily to Geo text messages

JournalismPakistan.com | Published: 26 April 2014

Faiz Paracha, a senior journalist, expressed his anger over unsolicited text messages from SMSall connected to Geo TV. He threatened to file a complaint with the PTA if the messages continued.
Summary

ISLAMABAD: A senior journalist has reacted angrily to text messages he continues to receive from SMSall, a mobile social network representing Geo TV.

Faiz Paracha (pictured), a Senior Economic Correspondent at Samaa TV told JournalismPakistan.com Saturday he was getting five to six messages daily on his cell phone relating to Hamid Mir and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Paracha threatened SMSall that he will file a complaint with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), saying he had not subscribed to these messages.

One of the messages he received from number 4360 reads: "#Hamid Mir praises army and security forces http://dai.ly/x1r1ziz."

"I have been receiving Geo TV SMS which I have not subscribed to. As for your privacy policy is concerned, I should not have been receiving such messages. I have not subscribed to you neither to Geo TV," he wrote back to SMSall.

"I do not want to read and waste my time in what Hamid Mir has to say or Geo TV has to say about their point of view regarding ISI and Army," wrote Paracha. "Why I have been bothered," he asked SMsall.

SMSall claims to be Pakistan's first and the largest growing mobile social network that has sent over 6 billion SMS through their service.

Hamid Mir of Geo TV was shot six times last week in Karachi by gunmen still to be identified. In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Geo aired claims by Mir's brother that the ISI was behind the attack.

This upset the military which denied the allegations as baseless and condemned the attack. The defense ministry is seeking cancellation of Geo's license having submitted a complaint with Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA).

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