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NEW DELHI: Even as the AXN channel has been allowed to resume
telecasts in India following an apology, the Information and
Broadcasting Ministry has expressed its unhappiness at the
fact that the channel should have ignored warnings about its
content.
Sources in the ministry tell Indiantelevision.com that the
channel, which was banned on 17 January for two months (till
15 March), "did not even acknowledge the notices of the
ministry in this regard, leave aside responding to them."
AXN had been banned for telecasting programmes like The
World’s Sexiest Advertisements, which the ministry
felt "were against good taste or decency and were likely
to adversely affect public morality."
I&B Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi had said recently that
the government was concerned about the content being aired on
electronic media and has warned of suitable action in case of
violations of the Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act
1995.
He had noted that some of the programmes being telecast on
TV on different channels had poor quality content and women
were depicted in a degrading fashion in advertisements etc.
"We have to be very tough in this regard," he had
noted. Though he did not name any channels, it is learnt that
they included FTV and Zee Café, apart from AXN.
The ban order under Section 20(2) of the Act was lifted in
view of the assurance by AXN that it would put in place a
more effective self regulatory mechanism to ensure that the
programmes and the advertisements telecast on the channel
are in compliance with the Act.
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