I&B Ministry issues advisory to private television channels

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Friday issued advisories to private television channels to adhere by Programme Code under Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act, 1995 under which no programme should contain half-truths, obscene & defamatory content, half-truth or malign reputation of an individual or a group among other regulations.

"The attention is drawn to the following provisions of the Programme Code which provide that no programme should contain; Rule 6(1)(D): anything obscene, defamatory, deliberate, false and suggestive innuendos and half-truths. Rule 6(1)(i): criticises, maligns or slander any individual in person or certain groups, segments of social, public and moral life of the country," read the advisory.

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issues advisories to private television channels to adhere by Programme Code under Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act, 1995 under which no programme should contain half-truths, obscene & defamatory content, among other regulations. pic.twitter.com/b8v9bmBIvj

— ANI (@ANI) October 9, 2020

The advisories comes a day after News Broadcasting Standard Authority (NBSA), a self-regulatory body imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on AajTak and sought a public apology from the channel for telecasting fake tweets relating to late actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

NBSA, a self-regulatory body, asked AajTak, part of TV Today, to air an apology in view of the fact that it did not conduct the due diligence required prior to telecasting the tweets and attributing them to the late actor. The text, date and time of the apology will be given to the broadcaster.

The Mumbai Police on Thursday, addressed a press conference, claiming that it has busted a "TRP scam", whereby Television Rating Points (TRPs) were being manipulated. Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh named Republic TV and two other Marathi channels 'Fakt Marathi' and 'Box Cinema' who were involved in the scam.