Tag: Sushma Singh

I&B ministry issues advisory to news channels; plans changes in Cable TV Act

MUMBAI: Information and Broadcasting ministry has issued an advisory to all the private news channels, to exercise restraint while airing news related to Mumbai terror attacks and its subsequent developments.

Appreciating the efforts of the media for covering the attacks, the ministry has cautioned news channels to “exercise some degree of caution and restraint as a mark of respect to those who have died in the terror strikes,” PTI quotes a senior official of the Ministry as saying.

“Though we appreciate the maturity shown by the Indian media while broadcasting last week’s terror attacks, through the advisory issued we have appealed to them that by repeatedly showing the visuals of the carnage, they are inadvertently harming the sentiments of those affected by it,” the official adds.

The advisory has been sent to the channels only to give them a message that they should be a bit more considerate in their coverage of the incident even though they have shown a lot responsibility.

It was learnt initially that the Ministry may take some decisions regarding further tightening of the cable laws. However, Ministry sources said that considering the responsible role of media, they just decided to issue an advisory.

Meanwhile, the ministry is tightening laws governing cable television broadcast, for which it is planning to introduce changes in Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995.

In the backdrop of India TV getting a notice from the ministry last week for airing a telephonic conversation with a couple of terrorists involved in the attack, ministry officials held a series of long meetings chaired by I&B secretary Sushma Singh to discuss the pros and cons of amending the Cable TV Act in order to bring private television channel coverage under stricter supervision.

December 4, 2008
Content Code: Govt to meet broadcasters next week

NEW DELHI: The much delayed Content Code may get a push with the. government slated to hold a meeting with private broadcasters on this next week.

“I am holding a meeting next week and then we will decide,” information and broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi said on the sidelines of a book release function.

Dasmunsi said the government needed to study the proposal by the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) about formation of the ‘News Broadcasting Standards (Disputes Redressal) Authority’ to enforce NBA’s code of ethics and broadcasting standards with effect from 2 October. He refused to make any comment on the proposal aimed at self-regulation.

Answering a question, Dasmunsi said the recommendations of Trai on self-regulation by television channels of TV viewership ratings were being studied by the government. However, he said ‘no’ when a mediaperson sought to know whether regulation of content would be given to Trai.

The minister was speaking to the media on the sidelines of a function at which he released two books on revolutionaries and freedom fighters – Khudiram Bose: Revolutionary Extraordinaire (English) written by Dr. Hitendra Patel And Ajeya Krantikari: Rajguru (Hindi) by Anil Verma – which have been published by the Publications Division of the ministry.

Answering another question after the function, Dasmunsi also turned down any proposal to permit private FM channels to broadcast news bulletins, despite a recommendation to that effect by Trai and Ficci.

Meanwhile, he said in reply to a question that he would talk to Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra about the reported attack by Jammu police on two photojournalists of Amar Ujala and JK Channel last night while they were covering the police brutality on Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti activists who were sitting on a dharna along with the body of Kuldeep Dogra who committed suicide yesterday. He said the ministry would make its own inquiry into the incident.

Apart from the minister, others present included I & B Secretary Sushma Singh, Debasis Roy (grand nephew of Khudiram Bose) and Satyasheel Rajguru (nephew of Rajguru).

Publications Division Director Veena Jain said that the recently-launched website of Employment News published by the Division was getting around 300,000 hits everyday. In addition, the popular children’s journal ‘Bal Bharati’ had the largest circulation among children’s journal category and the monthly magazine ‘Yojana’ is the only journal to be published in India in 13 languages.

August 25, 2008
Govt not considering permitting news on private FM channels

NEW DELHI: The Government is not considering any proposal to permit news broadcasts on private FM Radio channels.

This was stated by Information and Broadcasting secretary Sushma Singh, when answering a question on the sidelines of the Second Indian News Television Summit organised by indiantelevision.com.

Singh noted that the government had studied the reports of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India as well as the Ficci in this connection.

Answering another question, she said the government was considering the report on television audience meters received recently from Trai.

She said the government was under pressure from the judiciary to finalise and enforce a Content Code for television broadcasters, but regretted that the one finalised by a group of stakeholders from all sectors set up by her ministry had not been accepted by the news channels.

She said all stakeholders would be consulted before any Content Code is finalised. Draft codes had been prepared by the News Broadcasters Association and the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, but these were now being considered with legal experts and stakeholders.

She said the government was bound by certain orders of the courts and had to submit reports on this at regular intervals.

August 9, 2008
News channels get set for Summit, NT Awards

MUMBAI: The television news industry is gearing up for the Indian News Television (NT) Awards 2008 conducted by Indiantelevision Dot Com. Instituted last year, the awards recognises and honours news channels and professionals in the country.

The NT Awards 2008 will be preceded by the Second Indian News Television Summit, which will be held at the Taj Palace hotel in Delhi on Saturday, 9 August. With the theme being “Finding the Right Balance”, the summit is endorsed by the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry. The keynote will be delivered by I&B Secretary Sushma Singh and the panel discussions will see participation from a host of practitioners from the news television fraternity. The two sessions of the NT Summit are titled ‘Commercialisation Imperative’ and ‘Regionalisation- Niche Seeking Pockets of Success.’

In its second year, the NT Awards 2008 will have categories that will cover programming, personality, channel and special awards. The NT Awards will be presented to channel programmers, anchors, presenters, technicians, producers, editors, reporters and management.

Indiantelevision Dot Com CEO and founder Anil Wanvari says, “The industry responded very enthusiastically when we introduced the News Television Awards last year. In fact, in the second year we have been swamped with entries from the news channels.

“Our vision is to make these awards truly the news industry’s awards with participation from all the players like The Indian Telly Awards are the GEC genre’s awards. The News Television Awards are judged by veterans in the news space to really allow us to honour excellence in the TV Fourth Estate. We look forward to support and participation from one and all and a very successful News Television Awards.”

The NT Awards is an annual event and this year’s edition will cover the period between 1 April 2007 and 31 March 2008.

In most of the categories, a panel of jurors who are from within and outside broadcast journalism will view all the entries and shortlist them to decide the nominees and the winners. The nominees and winners will be based on a point scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest.

August 6, 2008