I&B Ministry to monitor news channels independently

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent | New Delhi
Big boss wants to not just watch, but watch again and again at will. The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has decided to monitor the content broadcast on television news channels independently, despite the recent reassurances and announcement of self-regulatory guidelines by broadcasters to handle a Mumbai terror like situation.

The I&B Ministry has decided to put in place a system that can monitor 300 TV channels by the end of this financial year. Official sources stated that the move has been initiated in an effort to properly monitor the content being aired on the channels in the country.

"Though the state-of-art facility, Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC) was set up in June 2008 to continuously record the broadcast signals being received in India, it is presently only equipped to oversee the broadcast of 100 channels," sources said to Televisionpoint.com.

However, with the recent turn of events, in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks, the I&B Ministry has decided to upgrade the Centre's capacity to monitor signals of 300 TV channels during the current financial year.

Sources pointed out that that under the law, the I&B ministry holds the right to issue advisories and take action for any possible violation by the broadcasters. However, the monitoring capacity may need to be enhanced even further as the country at present has over 450 channels including 417 private channels and 33 Doordarshan and Parliamentary channels.

Earlier this month, News Broadcasters Association (NBA), the apex body of the leading news broadcasters, had issued self-regulation guidelines for its members to handle the coverage of emergency situations. This came after the Ministry issued advisories to over 40 news channels in the wake of their Live coverage of Mumbai terror attacks.

Under the NBA guidelines, there will be no 'live' reporting in emergency situations that would facilitate publicity of any terrorist or militant outfit. Also, news channels will act in public interest in any such situations. News broadcasters will be required to treat the dead with dignity and no such visuals should be shown, say the NBA guidelines.

It may be noted that the EMMC, in addition to monitoring content, will also check violations of the programme and advertisement codes prescribed in Cable Television Networks (Regulations), Act, which prescribes guidelines for satellite channels.

The Ministry also plans to extend content monitoring to private FM channels, direct-to-home (DTH) and conditional access system (CAS). It could also look at monitoring content on the Internet made available by the channels.