Because channels run amuck
N P Chekkutty
The Central Government has finally woken up to the serious problems posed by the activities of a totally unregulated electronic media, both Indian and foreign, beamed to the drawing rooms across the country round the clock. The situation has been descried as a chaotic Indian sky, and the impact of this almost continuous unmonitored and uncontrolled media invasion among the younger generations is yet to be analyzed and properly studied.
The Information & Broadcasting Ministry has made an attempt to find a consensus on a proper regulatory mechanism for the electronic media, holding a national workshop on the content issues of television channels attended by representatives of all stakeholders in the media scene from all over the country, including content providers, cable operators, journalists from print and electronic media, social activists, women’s groups, etc.
The topics for the discussion at the workshop were mainly divided into three: First, the social responsibility of television media, which examined issues like acceptable community standards for decency; formulation of a watershed policy on such matters, and invasion of privacy of individuals by the media. The second part dealt with the question of adequacy of existing laws for regulation of broadcast content and how to rectify the shortfalls. In this section, the government welcomed suggestions on changes in the existing Programme and Advertising Code prescribed under the Cable Act, introduction of a classification/rating system for television programmes; insistence on pre-certification of films/film trailers/film songs/ music videos, etc, by Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) prior to telecast; strengthening of the existing enforcement mechanism and how to tackle the question of control vs creativity in television content.
The third part of the discussion was on impact of television content which focused on issues like coverage of natural calamities /disasters and accidents; depiction of sex and violence on TV; harmful impact of programmes and advertisements depicting children; portrayal of women in TV advertisement, telecast of movies rated A by CBFC and telecast of liquor and surrogate liquor advertisements, etc.
The workshop, held at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on February 16,2005, saw an informed and fruitful debate which was described by the I&B Minister Mr. Jaipal Reddy as a very fruitful exercise, the first of its kind in the country at his media briefing on the workshop.
The workshop came to a broad consensus on seven major issues with regard to regulation of the electronic media operating in the country and those from outside beaming to India. These points are:
a) The content providers and distributors, ie, the cable TV channels and cable distributors, must exercise restraint and self-regulation as to the sensitive nature of the content they provide, especially with regard to the non-news segment which have been seen as having a harmful impact on the younger generation.
b) The provisions of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 need to be strictly enforced so as to prevent the distribution of content harmful to society such as vulgarity and violence.
c) There is a need for a truly autonomous regulating authority to regulate as well as dispose of pubic grievances and complaints with regard to television content. Such a regulating authority shall be autonomous, will enjoy quasi-judicial powers and will represent the interests of all stakeholders.
d) There must be clear time slots for films and video albums with A certificate from the Central Board for Film Certification, in order to prevent children watching them unwittingly. The time slot which is to be fixed by the government, may be preferably after 11 p.m.
e) The country has to formulate down-linking laws in order to enforce control over the content in the foreign channels beamed to India. It is also felt that proper guidelines should be urgently put in place till formal down-linking laws are put in place.
f) The ratio between the time allotted for programmes and advertisements need to be decided upon as at present there is no uniform pattern for it in the country. The international norms are generally that time allotted for advertisement will be 20 per cent of the total programming time, with exceptions to prime time. These will have to be enforced through guidelines formulated and issued by the I&B ministry.
g) There is a consensus for enforcing the universal service obligations in the industry which will help the government to collect a fees from the channel operators on the lines of the telecom industry where the government collects a fee of five percent on their earnings. This amount will go to meet the expenses for the regulatory authority, ensuring its independent status. It will also be used for financing other social needs like funding an independent audience measurement system, financing social messages on issues like health, education, women’s empowerment, etc, to be telecast on the electronic media
h) The recommendations of the workshop will now be followed up by the I&B Ministry and the minister has promised to bring about a comprehensive bill on electronic media regulations and monitoring by the end of this year. He has promised that the Bill which will follow on the pattern of similar legislation in various developed and developing countries will be introduced latest by the monsoon session of Parliament so that by early next year the country will have a comprehensive legislation for regulating and monitoring the electronic media in the country.
The workshop has addressed the concerns about the lack of a responsible system for television news as at present the live channels are often seen as lacking in depth, character and socially meaningful content. But the television channels are expected to regulate themselves as far as news is concerned though the proposed regulating authority will have powers to register and dispose of complaints of every nature. As the objectives of the workshop noted, the idea was to achieve control over television content within the legally laid down guarantees for freedom of expression on the one hand and protecting the values and mores of the society at large on the other.
The government initiative is to be welcomed, because it is high time we had some legal remedies for the intrusions into private life by the electronic media for whom better ratings have become the first and foremost concern. The concern for sensitivity of a society at large is now simply ignored as we have seen in the case of Gudiya public trial, the live intrusion into the personal life of each and every celebrity, the kangaroo trial conducted by the electronic media on sensational cases, etc.
In fact India is far behind other developed and developing countries in legislating on electronic media content. France had taken the lead in such legislation as it had its regulating authority called CSA, Conseil Supereur de L’audiovisual in 1986 based on a legislation passed in September 1986. New Zealand followed it, with its Broadcasting Act 1989 and the Broadcasting Standards Authority set up under this legislation. Canada had its Telecommunication Commission based on the Broadcasting Act 19991, United Kingdom a commission under the Broadcasting Act 1996 and Communications Act 2003, Australia the Australian Broadcasting Authority under its Broadcasting Services Act 1992, and USA the Federal Communications Commission based on the Telecommunication Act 1996. South Africa had its authority based on Broadcasting Act 1999, South Korea the Korean Broadcasting Commission under its Broadcasting Act 2000.
(N P Chekkutty, a New Delhi based journalist, earlier worked as director of news at Kairali TV, Kochi. Contact: chekkutty@gmail.com )