Mumbai: Since 2018, the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) has taken action against 139 cases on content related to obscenity and violence on TV, I&B minister Anurag Thakur told the Parliament on Tuesday during the winter session.

"For Television, all TV Channels are required to adhere to the Programme Code under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, including that programmes should not contain anything obscene, defamatory, deliberate, false and suggestive innuendos and half-truths," said the minister, adding that, "the government takes action in appropriate cases where violation of the codes are found. It also issues advisory from time to time to the media to adhere to the laid down codes."

For digital news publishers, the government had notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 under the IT Act, 2000 on 25 February which inter alia provides for a Code of Ethics for adherence by digital news publishers.