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Tag: Broadcast Bill

  • Government issues watered down concept note on Broadcast Bill, seeks feedback

    Government issues watered down concept note on Broadcast Bill, seeks feedback

    NEW DELHI: The government has put out a watered-down version of the much-reviled draft Broadcast Bill for feedback from all stakeholders.

    Seemingly fazed by all-round criticism, the draft Bill put on the information and broadcasting ministry website has no mention of some draconian clauses.

    For example, a clause on government taking over broadcast services in times of war and national calamity has been done away with.

    In the draft Bill put on the ministry website — mib.nic.in —- a certain cap on number of consumers broadcast network service providers (MSOs, cable operators and DTH platform) can have nationally has also been quietly done away with, in sharp contrast to a draft that had been circulated by the government in June.

    A clause which stated in an earlier draft that no broadcast network service provider shall have more than the prescribed share of consumers/subscribers in a city or state subject to the overall ceiling of 15 per cent for the whole country doesn’t find a place in the draft put out by the government today.

    Some of the powers of the Broadcast Regulatory Authority of India too have been clipped in the new draft.

    What’s more, the government has put the entire draft Bill on the website of I&B ministry, in itself an historic action of sorts.

    A key point worth noting here is that this action (of making the contents public) by the I&B ministry means that the Bill currently stands as having been withdrawn. This is because once a ministry refers a decision to the Cabinet, it is covered by the Official Secrets Act, and the only way it can be brought into the public domain is to withdraw it formally.

    The move comes a few days ahead of a meeting that the ministry called with the industry on various aspects of media.

    The meeting has been scheduled for the evening of 14 August, which also happens to be the eve of India’s Independence Day.
    Though the move is being seen as an attempt to blunt criticism on lack of transparency on the part of government while formulating an important policy, a section of the industry has been caught by surprise by its timing.

    “Considering it’s going to be a long weekend, starting Friday (11 August) evening with holidays on 15 and 16 August, the government has given too short a time to revert with serious feedback,” a broadcaster exclaimed.

    However, to be fair to the government, it has also given the general public and industry about 30 days to formally lodge objections and suggestions relating to the draft Broadcast Bill, which when leaked in the media end-June (Indiantelevision.com also got hold of its contents), created an all-round furore.

    The concept note on the Bill states that it seeks to achieve the following:

    (i) To provide legislative sanction retroactively to government guidelines on various regulatory aspects such as television channels’ uplinking/downlinking, private FM Radio and community radio, DTH, Teleport, etc.

    (ii) To set up a new Broadcasting Regulatory Authority of India and delegate the regulatory functions presently being performed by the ministry of I&B to this new authority.

    (iii) To incorporate the provisions of the existing Cable Television Networks Regulation Act in the new legislation through appropriate repeal and savings clauses and provide for licensing of cable operators.

    (iv) To make enabling provisions in areas like cross-media restrictions, minimum searching of local content for all TV channels and their obligations towards social service messages.

  • Broadcast Bill Darbaar raises lively online debate

    Broadcast Bill Darbaar raises lively online debate

    MUMBAI: The Broadcast Bill needs to adequately address the changing dynamics in a converging world; and the sector regulator (the proposed Broadcast Regulatory Authority of India – Brai) needs to be an autonomous body – one that is neutral and not managed by the government.

    These were the key points that came through in an online debate on the proposed Broadcast Bill Draft 2006, organized today by Indiantelevsion.com. “Broadcast Bill Darbaar”, with guest participants Sunil Lulla, CEO, Times Global Broadcasting Company Ltd (Times Now) and Subhashish Mazumdar, head – business development, IMCL/INEL (Hinduja Media Group), saw a lively debate on the vexing issues impacting the industry on account of the Bill. The chat session was conducted between 3 pm and 4 pm this afternoon.

    Said Lulla, “The industry has asked the government to have an open dialogue. As the industry and the government have a common interest – growth of the business and protection of consumer interests.”

    Both Lulla and Mazumdar stressed on the need for technology neutral regulations and licensing. Referring to content regulations, Lulla pointed out, “So how do you control one and not the other, when content, be it in text, visual or audio form could be on any or all of these platforms (terrestrial, cable – analogue and digital -, DTH, mobile TV, IPTV).”

    An issue that constantly came up was about the pressing need for limits being placed, particularly on the kind of content that news channels were dishing out. The general argument being that the maddening race for TRPs has made news channels break quite a few rules of decency. Therefore, why shouldn’t the government regulate such irresponsible behaviour?

    Said one participant, “There has to be some broad guidelines and which are flouted day in and day out. If the industry cannot show responsibility, blaming the government seems funny.” To this Lulla responded, “No one is blaming the government for a content code. The code already exists. No one is opposing that. What we ask is for an autonomous body to determine, build, set and regulate the code if it wishes too. That’s all the Industry is stating.”

    On the side of the cable industry, the need for a new license regime was an issue that came up frequently. “We should also have competition among cable operators. Suppose I don’t like to shift to DTH or IPTV, which anyway is a distant option,” one participant pointed out. “Circles should be established as is the case in telecom (to break cable monopolies),” said another.

    Defending the cable industry, Mazumdar said, “We are not against licensing per se, but licensing should be technologically neutral and the basis of licensing is already there in cable, by the way. The licensing regime needs updation like making sure of PAN etc. But no one would like to have a licensing raj for an industry which is servicing 64 million households.”

    Both Lulla and Mazumdar came out strongly against the proposed cross media restrictions. “For looking ahead, we feel these restrictions are meaningless. If someone asks you to limit your market share by law or regulation, that is not acceptable,” Mazumdar said.

    Said Lulla: The Indian owned media industry is a fragile industry. It does not have the resources of global giants. In today’s day and age, growth of industry and especially the media industry needs to be encouraged. Hence the potential to apply brakes on what can be a significant business in India, is self limiting. Industrialists who are funding these businesses should be able to leverage their investments; hence cross media restrictions of the kind one is hearing about will not create a growth oriented climate, when the rest of the business climate is oriented towards growth.

    Neither could adequately answer this poser though: “Why did the industry accept cross media restrictions in DTH, and are now crying foul over the move?”

    In summation, Lulla said, “This country has respected freedom of expression and the industry is seeking it be respected. Regulation with dialogue which is inclusive and is autonomous is always welcome.”

  • I&B ministry fails to list B’cast Bill for Parliament

    I&B ministry fails to list B’cast Bill for Parliament

    NEW DELHI: Indian policy-makers seem to be having second thoughts on a draft broadcasting legislation that was proposed to be introduced in Parliament session, which started Monday.

    In the list of business that Parliament is to transact during the monsoon session, the Broadcast Bill, which the information and broadcasting ministry had proposed to introduce in the House, is missing.

    A senior government official admitted that there might be some “re-think” on a draft that had been sent to other ministries for feedback and the I&B ministry now “doesn’t seem to hurry through the Bill.”

    This is an ample indication that the Bill, termed draconian by the media industry, is highly unlikely to be introduced during the monsoon session, giving the media industry to lobby more effectively against and attempt to muzzle the media.

    Still, the government official added that not listing the Bill at this juncture doesn’t mean that it cannot be pushed through in Parliament for discussion later towards the end of the ongoing session.

    “It all depends on what the I&B ministry thinks. If it thinks more consultation is needed on the draft, then it would do so. If it can complete all the work quickly and get the Cabinet’s nod, then the Bill could be introduced in Parliament this session only,” the official explained.

    Last week a senior I&B ministry official had told Indiantelevision.com that feedback from other ministries were still awaited and the compilation work would take more than 15 days time.

    The government has been facing flak from the industry and elsewhere too on the clandestine manner in which it drafted a Cabinet note on the Broadcast Bill.

    Last week, as part of government-industry interaction, I&B secretary assured Confederation of Indian Industry’s media committee that a concept note on the draft Broadcast Services Regulatory Bill would be circulated for getting views of the media industry as inputs into the government’s decision-making process.

    Arora had lamely justified restrictive provisions in the proposed Bill as ones designed to facilitate the industry’s growth and not to micro-manage its functioning.

    He had explained the need for the Bill and a proposed media regulator with wide ranging powers was to provide “legislative backing to executive decisions” taken by the government in recent times.

    This legislative backing was required, he had told captains of the media industry, as most of the executive decisions have been challenged in court and the government has been asked to show legislative sanction for its actions.

  • Film & Television Producers Guild opposes proposed Broadcast Bill

    Film & Television Producers Guild opposes proposed Broadcast Bill

    MUMBAI: Media bodies are now waking up to condem on the draft of Broadcast Bill prepared by the information and broadcasting (I&B). After the Indian Broadcast Federation (IBF) has opposed the cross-media holding restrictions and the so-called Draconian clauses in the bill.

    The Film & Television Producers Guild of India Ltd has expressed its concerns about recent reports in the media that the government of India is planning to present a Broadcast Bill in the monsoon session of parliament.

    In an according to an official release issued, the Guild feels that the proposals are retrograde in nature, restrictive and definitely regressive.

    The Guild fears that if this bill is passed, anybody will have the right to complain to competent authorities and they will have the right to intervene. This will hamper the smooth functioning of media components and can lead to unnecessary government control of media. 

    The Bill also talks of imposing restriction on cross-media holding which is against the spirit of free enterprise. Also, extremely important problems of Copyright Theft and Piracy which together threaten to cripple the industry have not been addressed at all in the bill.

    The Guild which represents all major stakeholders in the Filmed Content space would like to play a more active role in this and should definitely be consulted before any such Bill is finalized/passed, informs the release.

  • Content regulation draft to be redone

    Content regulation draft to be redone

    NEW DELHI: Unhappy with the draft that has been prepared on content regulation, information and broadcasting secretary SK Arora has asked the panel responsible to rework it.

    Though no specific reasons were cited, the ministry is apparently unhappy with the way some of the issues have been dealt with as also the length of the 65-page draft, which is seen as being too unwieldy.

    Earlier in the week, Arora, who heads a 30-member committee comprising representatives from industry, trade and consumer bodies, conveyed his observations to a sub-panel handling the content regulation draft.

    However, no time frame has been set for the work to be redone, which is an indicator that the government might bring in such a regulation through an existing piece of legislation instead of waiting for the proposed Broadcast Bill 2006 to be enacted into law.

    The draft aims at regulating and setting parameters for content to be aired on TV and radio networks, including broadcast of adult fare and sting ops done by news channels.

    A peek into a section of this draft also highlights that the proposed legislation could not only hamper functioning of news channels, but is also intrusive.

    If okayed by lawmakers in its present state, it could well be the end of sting operations and coverage of issues where high profile politicians and personalities are involved.

    Sample this part: TV channels must not use material relating to persons personal or private affairs or which invades an individual’s privacy unless there is an identifiable public interest reason for the material to be broadcast.

    Who decides what constitutes an individual’s privacy? The government or the regulator, of course.

    Examples of public interest would include, according to the draft, revealing or detecting crime, protecting public health or safety, exposing misleading claims made by individuals or organizations or disclosing incompetence that affects the public.

    Nowhere does the proposed regulation dwell on misuse of official power by a public personality — an issue that’s increasingly becoming rampant in India.

    The draft then goes on to state that news should not jeopardize any ongoing criminal investigations and (TV channels) should avoid a trial by media since “a man is innocent till proven guilty by law”.

    Now this could also mean that if a politician’s son is being tried by law for using drugs in the official residence, TV news should not do extensive coverage of the incident. However, the draft regulation is silent what should be done in case such accused themselves go on air and ‘use’ the media to influence opinion making.

    “Channels mounting sting operations with use of hidden cameras and recording devices are required to strictly adhere to the rules prescribed,” the draft states, going on to put the onus on TV news channels of proving such a programme is in public interest.