|
NEW
DELHI: The Government has asked all television channels to
protect the identity of children in need of care and protection
and juveniles in conflict with the law.
The
Information and Broadcasting Ministry has said that all news
and current affairs TV channels are required to abide by the
provisions contained in the Cable Television Networks Rules
1994. Rule 6(1)(l) provides that no programme should be carried
in the cable service which denigrates children. Thus, the
channels are already required to carry the programmes involving
children with due care, maturity and sensitivity.
Accordingly,
all news and current affairs TV channels have been asked to
ensure compliance of the directives of the National Commission
for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) as also the provisions
of the Cable Television Networks Rules while telecasting any
content involving children.
Any
violation will entail stringent action as per the Cable Television
Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, rules promulgated thereunder
and the terms and conditions of uplinking and downlinking
guidelines.
The
NCPCR was set up in March 2007 under the Commission for Protection
of Child Rights Act 2005 to ensure that all laws, policies,
programmes, and administrative mechanisms are in consonance
with the child rights perspective as enshrined in the Constitution
of India and also the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Any person contravening these provisions is also liable to
penalties, as prescribed under the provisions of Section 21
(2) of the Act.
The
commission has recommended that necessary directives/set of
protocols be issued to the entire print and electronic media
to refrain from publishing the names, pictures, home address,
school address and other parameters of their identity of such
children who need to be reported upon by media on account
of certain circumstances including difficult circumstances.
As such disclosures only tend to leave their imprint and affect
the social and mental health of children in their crucial
stage of development.
|
