| NEW
DELHI: The government has issued a stern warning to the National Geographic Channel
for showing the "wrong" map of India that did not feature Jammu and
Kashmir as an integral part of India. The
channel had been issued a show cause notice on 4 September to the effect that
the programme telecast on 4 August showed the wrong map of India. This related
to showing a programme on Rhinos in South Asia which was not in conformity with
the outline map of India as published by the Survey of India. The telecast/re-telecast
of this programme appeared to distort the map of India, according to the Information
and Broadcasting Ministry.
In
its reply, the channel said on 16 September that it had "inadvertently shown
the map of South Asia, which included Indian territorial boundary, which was not
in conformity with the map of India published by the Survey of India." The
channel also stated that the subject matter of the programme was wild life and
focused on the Rhinoceros found in the region of South Asia. The documentary,
titled “World’s Deadliest Animals – Asia - Land of Extremes,”
was aired on 4 August between 12 noon to 1 pm. The
I&B Ministry, under provisions of Downlinking Guidelines, the terms and conditions
of the permission granted and the provisions of Section 20 of the Cable Television
Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, has issued the warning to the channel to strictly
adhere to the Programme Code prescribed under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation)
Act, 1995 and Rules framed thereunder. The
competent authority, after considering all the facts and circumstances of the
case, the observations of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC), the reply submitted
by the Channel and after due application of mind, concluded that the channel had
violated Rule 6 (1) (h) of the Programme Code. Strict compliance to this direction
has to be ensured by the channel and any further violation may entail stringent
action, the Ministry said. | 
