[cr-india] Private broadcasters protest proposed content code

[Frederick Noronha [फ़रेदरिक नोरोनया]]

Private broadcasters protest proposed content code
Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, July 23 (IANS) The "trust deficit" between private
broadcasters and the government came out in the open Monday with
private players protesting vehemently against the imposition of a
content code.

Defending the proposed content code, Information and Broadcasting
Secretary Asha Swarup said it was "incorrect" to say that India was
the only country that was proposing to have such a code for the
broadcast sector as codes exist already in different forms in other
countries.

"Within the country itself, there has always been a programme code and
an advertising code as part of the licence conditions for the service
providers to abide by," Swarup said at a seminar on 'Regulation in the
Entertainment Sector'. The seminar was organised by the Federation of
Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

"We have only revised these codes and propose to present them in a
content code in view of the discussions with industry that have been
taking place since October 2005," she stressed.

"The revised bill on the Proposed Broadcast Services Regulation, which
was announced to the media and put on the ministry's website on July
20, incorporates the comments and views of the industry received
during the past several years," she said.

The proposed Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, 2007, is likely to
be introduced in the monsoon session of parliament.

"There is no place for emotions and nobody is trying to bring in a
guided democracy. If there is a trust deficit, it has to be addressed
as the first priority by sitting across the table," Pradeep Singh,
additional secretary in the information and broadcasting ministry,
said while responding to objections of private broadcasters.

"The content code already exists. It is merely being fleshed out,"
Singh emphasised.

Arvind Kumar, director (broadcast policy and legislation), in the
information and broadcasting ministry, made a detailed presentation on
the Proposed Broadcast Services Regulations Bill and Draft Content
Code and Guidelines.

Private broadcasters were, however, near unanimous in rejecting the
content code which they saw as an attempt to shackle the autonomy of
media.

The provisions of the Regulatory Bill would shackle the industry and
were not enabling but disabling, said Sunil Lulla, chief executive
officer of Times Global Broadcasting Company Ltd.

The timeframe, set by the government for eliciting the responses (Aug
5, 2007) was unrealistic as the issues involved were of vital concern
to a growing economy, he said.

Amit Khanna, chairman of the FICCI Committee on Convergence and
chairman, Reliance Entertainment Ltd, called for a re-look at
cross-media restrictions and described the sector equity caps as the
worst form of piecemeal legislation.

G. Krishnan, CEO of Aajtak, said that guidelines rather than
regulation would have helped in encouraging more responsibility in
broadcasting media. "It is improper to put regulation in place.
Guidelines should have been good enough. The fourth estate was like an
auditor and you can't put restrictions on auditors," he said.

"Any regulation on a free press would be regressive and set us back by
many, many years," Krishnan stressed.

Besides top bureaucrats of the information and broadcasting industry,
leading players in the broadcast sector participated in the seminar.

News broadcasters have also vehemently rejected the proposed content
code on the grounds that it gives the government powers to shackle the
autonomy of media.

The information and broadcasting ministry has released the draft of
the Self Regulation Guidelines for the Broadcasting Sector which
require the broadcasters to share responsibility for the content and
advertisement aired by them.

The content code also wants the broadcasters to respect the privacy of
persons and not use material relating to personal of private affairs
unless it is in the larger identifiable public interest.

The code also requires that the programmes be classified into four
categories - 'U', 'S', 'U/A' and 'A' and has gone ahead to specify
time restrictions as to when the U/A and the A category programmes can
be broadcast.

Indo-Asian News Service

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