Kid gloves regulation- Part 1

How is self regulation of television in India working? Does it have the capacity to rein in wayward channels? Do the self regulatory mechanisms set up by the industry have bite?

 

The year 2011 saw self-regulation initiatives by Indian broadcasters take further hold with the formation of the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) in June. This followed the setting up of the self regulatory authority of the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) in late 2008. Both initiatives are essentially aimed at keeping government out of regulating the TV sector, while responding to pressure to tackle the decreasing quality of content on an increasing number of TV channels.

 

With the rising number of TV channels, the key challenge is that there is too much content on television to monitor. And the channels are often accused of plumbing depths when it comes to standards of content, resulting from the intense competition for viewers among these channels. Realizing the need to self regulate and address complaints, the News Broadcasters Association and the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council were formed to play a proactive role in censuring offences by news and non-news channels, respectively. A large number of complaints have been received by the BCCC which proves the rising number of offences committed by the channels. The NBA does not say on its website how many complaints it received, and did not respond when asked. It is vital to take a look at how these bodies have been exercising their powers. Have they been light-handed in their decisions or have they successfully tightened the noose around the channels?

 

The Hoot reviews how the NBA and the BCCC have performed in the past few months in terms of their objectives of self-regulation.

 

BCCC, the body that regulates non-news programmes on television is empowered to investigate complaints from viewers or from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and direct the channels concerned to remove objectionable content if necessary. More than 3000 complaints were filed since its formation in 2011. But what is interesting to note here is that only a small percentage, 13.5%, were taken up for reviewing or hearing. More than half i.e. 55.7% of the total complaints received by the BCCC were not taken up on grounds of not relating to complaints against TV content. The remaining complaints which formed 23.5% of the total number, were related to advertisements, movies, and news, or related to non IBF members (the Indian Broadcasting Foundation set up BCCC) and were subsequently handed over to the respective associations.

 

 

NO	DESCRIPTION	NO. OF COMPLAINTS
1	Complaints not relating to the Content/Suggestions	2012
2	Complaints against advertisements	227
3	Complaints against movies	58
4	Complaints against News Content	239
5	Miscellaneous complaints	276
6	Complaints against non-IBF channels	48
7	Complaints against quizzes/prizes	260
8	Specific complaints that were considered	490(of which, 63 complaints have been received from the I & B Ministry)
	TOTAL	3610

 

 

It is interesting to note that the BCCC received 239 complaints against news contents that were accordingly, handed over the NBA. But we don’t know how many of these the NBA took up because a mere 9 decisions were taken by the authority during the years 2009- 2011 on the complaints received. A sizeable number of the decisions were taken against sensationalisation of news,  insensitive use of visuals and false information in respective programmes.

 

Out of the 490 complaints that were taken up by BCCC for hearing, the maximum complaints were against the Rakhi Sawant-hosted programme, Gajab Desh ki Ajab Kahania (58), and the appearance of porn star Sunny Leone on “Bigg Boss” (37). The BCCC’s objection to Bigg Boss was not that it was violating the self-regulation guidelines, but it took offence at Ms. Leone’s blog where feed from Bigg Boss was used to promote her website. The channel was directed to exercise caution in selecting participants to the show in future.

 

 

As TV shows and channels turn aggressive in their race for TRPs, obscenity has touched an all-time high. 140 complaints have been filed against youth-based and other reality TV shows that are aired on Channel V, UTV Bindaas and MTV for use of abusive language by its participants/ hosts. Most of the shows are loosely based on western concepts of love and dating game shows, etc. Uncensored clips of shows such as Emotional Atyachar are being watched by thousands of people on You Tube and similar shows like Roadies and Axe ur Ex that revolve around young audience tend to go overboard with abusive language and slangs.

CATEGORIES OF COMPLAINTS	NUMBER OF COMPLAINTS
Violence towards women	34
Excessive violence/ gore	19
Abusive language	140
Sexual Content/ Obscenity/ Adult Content/ Indecent Act/ Nudity	113
Incitement of communalism/ child marriage/ occult/ superstition	12
Incorrect/ false/ misleading information	5
Cruelty on animals	18
Miscellaneous	151

 

English entertainment channels on the other hand, have been popular particularly among the young urban audience. Thirty five complaints were against the depiction of sexuality in such English GECs. BCCC advised these channels to not telecast such programmes during the general viewing hours and prohibited telecast in some cases. Most of the complaints were against nudity and scenes that do not suit Indian sensibilities. Broadcasters have also been regulating them on their own: there have been instances of TV channels practising self-censoring by obliterating scenes that are central to a show's plot leaving the scenes in the show disjointed. It is interesting to note that some of the shows (“Free Radio” and “Californication”) have been taken off air. BCCC members conveyed to the channel that some of these programmes were telecast during general viewing hours are not suitable for Children and Young viewers.

 

78 complaints were against the sexual contents/ nudity that appear on Lifestlye/ Fashion and English GECs. Despite the staggering number of complaints, the BCCC has been very mild in terms of decision making. It has merely issued an advisory asking the channels not to air such programmes in general viewing hours. It is also noticed that the complaints against such channels were not upheld as they were found not to violate the self regulatory content guidelines. 

 

Hindi soaps in GECs such as Colors, Sony, Star Plus, and Imagine TV had to face the ire of BCCC over various programmes, for allegedly inciting communal and racial feelings and for portraying crime against women. TV series like Prayashchit Gunahon Ka, Crime Patrol, were at the receiving end for portraying violence against women, while Na Aana Iss Des Mein Lado, which is aired on Colors, got maximum complaints among all the Hindi GEC soaps for various offences that also include portrayal of exploitation of women and, according to the complainants, it promoted honour killing. The channels were told to exercise restraint while portraying violence against women. The BCCC also warned the channels not to repeat the offending programmes along with a general advisory to all channels to avoid the same in future. 34 complaints were filed for the depiction of violence towards woman while 19 complaints were against shows like Crime Patrol in Sony that showed graphic representation of gore and violence. Though the complaints against the offences are serious the BCCC after the hearing did not direct the channels with any strict actions but it simply issued an advisory urging the channels to tone down such graphic representations in the future.