HC questions Centre on censorship of TV programmes

The High Court on Thursday questioned the Union government on how it monitors and censors TV programmes. 

Justice A N Venugopala Gowda asked how effectively the programmes are censored and if the producers of the programme follow the directions of the committee constituted to check on censorship.

The petitioner, Megha Movies, has challenged the Central Board of Film Certification’s (CBFC) decision to delete some scenes in the Kannada movie, ‘Kiragoorina Gayyaligalu’, which had lewd comments. These comments were otherwise cleared by the Censor Board for the trailer. The petitioner has questioned the double standards in the way censorship is done for movies and television programmes and has sought directions to have proper guidelines for the Cinematography Act,1952 for Television Serials/Advertisements and Promotions of Sales Products. 

The petitioners have contended that though there were rules for formation of state and district committees to check on censorship for television programmes, they have not been effectively implemented.

The judge directed the Union government to produce Supreme Court and High Court orders with regard to censorship in television and adjourned the next hearing to Friday.