Govt wants more time on regulation TV content
In spite of the unanimous demand from members of the Upper House on Monday for setting up an independent broadcasting regulatory authority to control airing of obscene programmes I&B Minister Ambika Soni failed to give any assurance on whether such bodies would ever become a reality.
“I am not asserting anything. We want to begin from self-regulation to independent regulatory authority, but I do not know when, how or whether it will happen,” Soni said.
Responding to a short duration discussion in RS on increasing obscenity and vulgarity in Television programmes the minister said she appreciated the efforts of self-regulation by the electronic channels. “I appreciate the efforts already taken by the bodies like News Broadcasters Association or Indian Broadcasters’ Federation in putting in place self-regulatory codes and with as many as 480 channels in place, such bodies should not be blamed in case a few channels do not stick to those codes,” she said.
Maintaining that people are suspicious of any regulation coming from the Government the minister said she needed more time to evolve consensus on the issue. “We have a Broadcasting Bill pending and it has talked about an independent authority. But I cannot pre-empt anything on this issue as it is extremely sensitive,” she said.
Earlier, MPs cutting across party lines demanded that an independent broadcasting regulatory authority should be immediately put in place as self-regulation by the media has failed.
“Media has failed to impose self-regulation and programmes demeaning women and showcasing them as sex objects are coming aplenty just to give a push to the TRPs,” CPM member Brinda Karat said.
Raising the issue of manipulating the TRPs by a few private players BJP member Ravi Shankar Prasad demanded an independent and transparent mechanism for measuring the popularity of the TV shows.
