Govt averse to changes in programme and advertising codes

NEW DELHI: The government does not consider it necessary to change the rules relating to content in the Programme and Advertising Codes prescribed under the Cable Television Networks (Regulations) Act 1995. It feels the provisions in the codes are adequate.

Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources told indiantelevision.com that the regulations were being implemented by the self-regulatory bodies under the Indian Broadcasting Foundation and the News Broadcasters Association.

However, the sources made it clear that the self-regulation mechanism put in place by the broadcasters ?does not replace the existing regulatory function of the fovernment arising out of the 1995 Act and rules framed thereunder?.

The Inter-Ministerial Committee of the I and B Ministry continues to look into violations of the Code reported to the Ministry, and also refers some of these complaints to the self-regulatory bodies: News Broadcasting Standards Authority headed by Justice J S Verma and the Broadcast Content Complaints Council headed by Justice A P Shah.

The committee presently has representatives from the I&B, Women and Child Development, Consumer Affairs, Home, Defence, External Affairs, Law, and Health and Family Welfare Ministries and the Advertising Standards Council of India.

In addition, the Ministry has set up 21 state-level monitoring committees including union territories and 274 district-level monitoring committees across the country.

The government had set up a committee in October 2005 which also had members from the civil society to recommend changes in the content, and this committee gave its report in March 2008.

However, broadcasters had rejected the report and the NBA was formed to set up its own regulatory mechanism, followed thereafter by the IBF establishing the BCCC.

Thereafter, the sources said, the government decided to give self-regulation a chance while insisting that it will step in whenever needed.