Real fun begins at night

I&B Ministry will introduce a new timing regime where each programme will be certified, writes Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Feb 19, 2006, 15:44:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Crime programmes after 10 pm and sizzling music videos only after 11 pm -— this is how your TV programmes are expected to be slotted soon.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting plans to introduce a new, staggered timing regime in which each programme will be certified —- stating who can view it -— and will be slotted accordingly.

For this, the ministry has asked the TV industry to incorporate a self-certification mode for the programmes.

"We have a draft from the FICCI on self-regulation module the industry has agreed upon. Based on the module, each programme will get a certificate from its broadcaster, stating who can view it," a senior ministry official said.

The code will be much more comprehensive than the one for film certification.

"The reach of TV is bigger. We have to look at regulation for entertainment, news channels, sports channels and religious channels," an official said.

The government will step in only when the self regulation module is violated.

I&B secretary SK Arora said earlier this week: "We will have a regulatory authority to take action against any violation. A broadcast Bill will soon be introduced in Parliament."

Sources in the industry say each channel may have to appoint an ombudsman to ensure that the code is enforced strictly.

With this, the viewers too will get a platform to complain against the content.

The new set of rules and regulations are likely to come into force from mid 2006.

The FICCI has submitted a revised draft on which the discussions are in the final stage, sources say.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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