ITV

Tag: Regulation Act

  • I&B ministry supports anti-smoking ban

    I&B ministry supports anti-smoking ban

    NEW DELHI: Formula One races with participants sporting logos of sponsors like Marlboro company may just sneak through on Indian television during a live telecast. Any such recorded events on sports channels would have to stop airing in India.

    The reason being that the information and broadcasting ministry totally endorses a ban on smoking or tobacco companies being shown in films or TV programmes. The deadline to fall in line with the latest government diktat: first week of October.

    The I&B ministry totally supports the health ministry ban on smoking on small and the big screen, minister Jaipal Reddy today told reporters after concluding over an hour long meeting with his counterpart in the health ministry.

    However, he admitted that it has been conveyed to the health ministry that having scrollers or warnings flashing in old and already released films during scenes where characters are shown smoking is not feasible. We cannot have a law with retrospective effect, Reddy said.

    So, in effect it means that the various arms of the government are united in smoking out the fire at the end of the white stick in films and TV programmes in future.

    Still, the government has left itself some elbow room. Live telecasts of any events and documentaries depicting the ills of smoking have been left outside the ambit of the new anti-smoking law being attempted to be enforced in India.

    What does that mean? If during a film awards show being aired live on television, for example, some body is shown smoking, it would not attract harsh penalties being mulled by the government.

    The government is also looking at ways of amending the Cinematography Act and the Cable TV (Network) Regulation Act to enforce this anti-smoking move in films and television.

    Also, if filmmakers and TV producers want to show characters smoking in future products, they would have to take permission from an inter-ministerial committee, which would review the situation on a case to case basis.

  • Ready to formulate news coverage ‘guidelines’, IBF members assure govt.

    Ready to formulate news coverage ‘guidelines’, IBF members assure govt.

    NEW DELHI: After surrogate advertising and ‘offensive’ music videos on television channels, it’s the turn of news channels to feel the heat from the government.

    The Indian Broadcasting Foundation today at a meeting decided that there is a need to formulate some guiding principles for covering news for television channels. In the interim, the news channels would strictly follow the guidelines that have been laid out in the Cable TV (Networks) Regulation Act and show some restraint while covering events like terrorist attacks.

    The guidelines for the news channels would be formulated as a soon as possible, after a consensus through consultation process with IBF members. After its formulation, the guidelines would be sent to the government.

    Today’s IBF meeting, attended by news channel heads of various organisations, were told that the Indian government has requested the IBF to discuss the issue amongst members through a missive sent earlier and that a set of guidelines have to be evolved for news channels.

    The government provocation came after defence forces allegedly complained that coverage of some events interfered with their operations. A case that has been repeatedly brought up by the government to highlight this is the attack on the Akshardham temple in the state of Gujarat where terrorists held some devotees captives and the administration to ransom, before being taken out by commandos during a rescue mission that lasted over 12 hours.

    In this case the defence forces had complained that live coverage of the rescue mission on television caused inconveniences in carrying out official duties, especially when it involved human lives.

    At today’s IBF meeting issues like airing of video that could cause trauma (like the recently assassinated Gujarat politician Hiren Pandya’s bullet-riddled body) were also discussed.

    Those who attended the meeting included Star News president Ravina Raj Kohli, her deputy Sanjay Pugalia, Sahara Samay’s Arup Ghosh and TV Today Network’s news director Uday Shankar.