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NEW
DELHI: Though the government is so far ignoring some bits
of public interest information being broadcast over FM radio
stations, it might soon act against some channels that are
giving mini newscasts. These channels could jeopardise further
liberalisation of content, officials today told Indiantelevision.com.
Clarifying
also that Community FM Radio offers some complex political pitfalls, the officials
said that it would overlook trivial information, whichever is relevant for the
particular community, and the enablement clauses would hopefully act as deterrent.
Officials
talking informally admitted that CRSs (community radio stations) do stand a clear
chance of being misused, especially in an Indian condition, where responsible
use of a facility is less prominent unlike in some western cultures. One
question posed to the officials is, what happens in a situation where a farming
community take a radio station and where it goes by the government's very own
goal of discussing developmental projects, but gives it a slant against this or
that party, or uses it as a slur campaign, especially in politicised states like
West Bengal and Kerala. Officials
said that first of all, the enablement clauses say that a CRS must keep 90 days
of recording available for checking any time, so once the community knows there
is a checker round the corner, hopefully they would avoid stepping outside what
is allowed. Officials
admitted that there is no institutionalised monitoring mechanism in place for
FM or CRSs, but if there are complaints, the department would send investigators
and take surveys and interviews of local people on whether the misuse allegations
were true. If
found guilty, the licenses would be withdrawn, officials said. They
admitted also that there are grey areas, but the official position is clear: there
cannot be news broadcast on FM channels or CRS, and there is no proposal so far
for news to be allowed in any form over private or community radio. "Some
FM channels are giving information about rainfall or temperature or traffic jams,
trivial issues, which strictly speaking violates the norms, because those are
purely entertainment channels," an official said, asking to remain unnamed. That
the government has not initiated action does not imply this is an official position,
the officials clarified. These are merely tolerated as letting channels raise
their revenue. However,
it has come to the notice of the government that some radio stations are giving
what they (channels) call one-minute news, which shall not be tolerated, officials
affirmed. | 
