Ambika Soni placates irate broadcasters

NEW DELHI: Under fire from broadcasters for its decision to recast policy guidelines for TV, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has said no final decision would be taken without addressing the apprehensions of broadcasters.

Reiterating the Government would prefer self-regulation by channels, I&B Minister Ambika Soni said: "We will be holding discussions with broadcasters? bodies."

The government had over the weekend toughened the Uplinking and Downlinking Guidelines by not only increasing the net worth criteria for both news and general entertainment channels, but also said renewal will be subject to a channel not having violated the Programme and Advertising Codes five or more times.

Both the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) and the Broadcasters Editors Association (BEA) described the move as a direct assault on the independence of the media.

The new policy guidelines for companies seeking to operate TV channels in India include revising the net worth criteria for uplinking of non-news and current affairs channels and downlinking of foreign channels from Rs.15 million to Rs.50 million for the first channel and Rs.25 million for each additional channel.

For uplinking of news and current affairs channels, the net worth criteria has been increased from Rs.30 million to Rs.200 million for the first channel and Rs.50 million for each additional channel.