[cr-india]NEWS: Pvt FM channels offer news capsules despite government ban...

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

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Message: 3
   Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 22:41:09 +0530
   From: "Alokesh Gupta" <alokeshgupta at hotmail.com>
Subject: Pvt FM Channels Offer News Capsules Despite Govt Ban

Pvt FM Channels Offer News Capsules Despite Govt Ban
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Nivedita Mookerji

New Delhi:  When the government allowed private players to bid for FM radio
stations more than three years ago, one of the conditions was that they would be
barred from airing news and current affairs programmes.
With several private FM radio stations operational now in Mumbai, Delhi,
Bangalore, Lucknow and Indore, one finds that ^Ñnews^Ò is an integral part of their
programming schedule. Reason: The government has not given any specific definition
of ^Ñnews^Ò to private players, and the FM stations are going by their own
interpretation of the word.
Although these radio stations refrain from calling any of the content ^Ñnews^Ò, they
do have ^ÑBiz Updates^Ò, ^ÑBizness Update^Ò and even stock prices.
One of the companies says that its station offers ^Ñ^Ñnews you can use^Ò^Ò. Besides
traffic and weather info, this station gives ^Ñ^Ñstock prices and other crucial
information to empower and entertain^Ò^Ò. In a morning slot on films, there are film
reviews, trade news and ^Ñ^Ñhot news and gossip straight from Bollywood and
Hollywood^Ò^Ò.
Move on to another station which launched in Delhi a couple of days ago, and you
have live interviews of movie stars and music personalities.
Then, yet another station has programmes on young achievers and latest updates on
the power situation in Delhi.
While announcing the launch of ^ÑRadio City^Ò (a Star-Ispat group joint venture) in
the capital, COO of Radio division, Star India, Mr Sumantra Dutta said ^Ñ^Ñnews is
mainly political....^Ò^Ò He added that ^ÑRadio City^Ò would carry news that impacts
local people. At the launch of another private station in the city, Radio Mirchi,
officials said that they would want the government to allow news in their
channels, even as the channel already has business and trade news.
To a query on what was meant by ^Ñnews^Ò, a senior information and broadcasting
ministry official said it was ^Ñ^Ñprimarily political and economic^Ò^Ò.
The official, however, admitted that he was not aware of any ^Ñ^Ñbusiness update^Ò^Ò
slots on these channels.
He also told eFE that the private FM licencees were not given any definition of
news and current affairs by the government.
Meanwhile, if we turn to the dictionary meaning of ^Ñnews^Ò, it does not have any
^Ñpolitical^Ò hue.
While the Oxford dictionary defines news as ^Ñ^Ñnewly received or noteworthy
information, especially about recent events^Ò^Ò and ^Ñ^Ñinformation not previously
known^Ò^Ò, its thesaurus meanings are account, advice, bulletin, communication,
headlines, information, intelligence, the latest, message, newsletter, notice,
press release, proclamation, report, rumour, statement, among others.
(Financial Express)

Regds,
Alokesh Gupta
New Delhi, India.




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