Naya Daur TV YouTube Channel on Wednesday came under cyber attack by unidentified people as it was hacked and remained terminated for over 20 hours, which was later restored due to assistance by Google, Gmail, and YouTube officials.
While speaking at a program “Khabar Se Agaay," Naya Daur TV Editor-in-Chief Raza Rumi said, "Recently, a well-wisher from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) told us that our website will be banned soon as its name is mentioned in the ‘list’ because of reporting a news story on the resignation of Corps Commander Mangla.
“We removed that story from our channel, but still, our YouTube channel got hacked,” he added.
He said that it was not the first time his news outlet endured a cyber attack or restriction, adding that his news website was banned in 2018 for giving coverage to the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), after which he created the Naya Daur digital platform.
He further disclosed that the news outlet was banned for publishing reports regarding the extension of the tenure of then-army chief General (retired) Qamar Javed Bajwa. “There was no editorial view; in fact, we were just translating the reports published in international media,” he explained.
Raza said that then-information minister Fawad Chaudhry helped him lift the ban on his website, and we were barred from publishing any report regarding Bajwa’s extension.
He also mentioned that Naya Daur’s YouTube live streaming was banned in 2020 for reporting a story about the son of a retired general who was in detention for writing a letter against Gen (r) Bajwa's tenure extension.
Raza also expressed gratitude to the supporters who contacted him and extended help for the restoration of the channel.