ITV

Tag: Prime Minister Office

  • Journalists’ bodies want electronic & digital media under Working Journalists Act’s ambit

    Journalists’ bodies want electronic & digital media under Working Journalists Act’s ambit

    NEW DELHI: The National Alliance of Journalists Unions today submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister’s Office in New Delhi urging the Government to uphold the livelihood rights of journalists and their right to practice their profession in a safe environment.

     

    Director V Seshadri, who received the memorandum, assured the journalists’ unions that the PMO would take due note of their concerns.

     

    The journalists unions pointed to the dangers of eroding the legislative protection available in the Working Journalists’ Act regarding working conditions and wages.

     

    Despite Supreme Court rulings upholding the validity of the Majithia Wage Board Award for journalists and other newspaper employees, most newspaper establishments have refused to implement it, they said.

     

    If this wage board award is undermined by the recalcitrance of newspaper owners, then it is unlikely that the Working Journalists’ Act will survive as a protective legislation, the National Alliance warned.

     

    They demanded an end to the contract system of employment and asked for extending the application of the Working Journalists Act to the electronic and digital media.

     

    The National Alliance called for a new Media Commission to look into the state of affairs in the media, where unviable revenue models are forcing news media to function as an appendage to entertainment, real estate and other sectors. Rapid changes in the landscape media require a new regulatory framework that preserves the fundamental rights to speak and be informed, they said.

     

    The unions also called for measures to protect journalists from physical attacks, legal persecution and arbitrary actions by the authorities.

     

    The memorandum as also signed by office-bearers of Delhi Union of Journalists; Andhra Pradesh Working Journalists Federation’ and Telengana Working Journalists Federation.

  • I&B Ministry explains to PMO its reasons for postponing digitisation dates

    I&B Ministry explains to PMO its reasons for postponing digitisation dates

    NEW DELHI: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry feels that digitisation is a tool to empower the people and not create difficulties, and therefore does not agree that it will create any setback to the Digital India Plan.

     

    Ministry sources told indiantelevision.com that this had been conveyed by the Ministry to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in response to the communication to PMO by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India chairman Rahul Khullar.

     

    The sources also pointed out that the pace of digitisation had slowed down over the past year due to lack of adequate publicity and paucity of fund allocation. 

     

    The Ministry said cable TV digitisation was only a small though major part of Digital India.

     

    The main purpose was not to delay digitisation of cable television networks but to encourage greater indigenisation of both set top boxes and other equipment, the sources informed.

     

    The dates proposed by the Ministry were only the outer limit and every effort would be made to ensure digitisation of cable TV is achieved before that. It was also pointed out that the consumer’s capacity to pay was of great importance in the last two phases which were reaching out to semi-urban or rural areas.

     

    It was also emphasised that TRAI was being consulted on the proposal about the new dates and the views of the regulator would be taken into account.

     

    Khullar in his note to the PMO has said staggering implementation of the cable TV digitisation plan will be a major setback to the Digital India plan.

     

    He said, “For the last six months, we have been working on phase-III and phase-IV. If implementation is now staggered, it will be a body blow to the project, primarily because momentum will be lost and it is truly very difficult to enforce compliance countrywide.”

     

    Under the current plan, the third phase of the cable TV digitisation plan is expected to end on 30 September, and phase IV by 31 December this year, while the Ministry feels the new dates should be December 2015 and December 2016 respectively.

     

    “Should this happen, it will be a major setback to digitisation in the country. Further, a huge effort was made by TRAI to enforce compliance. We encountered significant difficulties in ensuring that phase I and phase II were effectively completed,” the TRAI chief wrote.

     

    There are 100 million homes with cable TV connection of which 20 million are digital. In addition, there are 56 million DTH homes. This is more than the fixed line telephony subscriber base. Digitisation would enable cable TV networks to be used for two-way communications, a pre-requisite for internet services.

     

    TRAI said that digitisation offers much cheaper means of providing broadband to consumers compared to the National Optical Fibre Network project, which aims to roll out fibre cables across the country as broadband is the main supplier of TV signals in all developed countries.