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NEW
DELHI: Assuring the media industry that there was no plan
to impose a 'blanket ban' on live coverage of live incidents,
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Anand Sharma
said today that the government was committed to 'the widest
possible' consultations with stakeholders before taking any
initiative involving guidelines for the electronic media.
Answering
questions in Parliament, Sharma said the government had no
intention to control the news content of the news channel
in any manner. "At no point government contemplated such
a move," he added.
The
government has already initiated a process of consultation
in this regard with several stakeholders including representatives
of the electronic media and concerned governmental agencies.
He said several meetings had been held with representatives
of the News Broadcasters Association (NBA), the Indian Broadcasting
Federation (IBF), security agencies and defence forces after
the Mumbai terror attacks. He noted that the security agencies
had been put in a disadvantageous position because of the
live coverage of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Noting
that self-regulation was the best option for telecast of such
events, he said broadcasters had themselves formulated a self-regulating
mechanism and assured the government they would adhere to
it.
A
grievance redressal mechanism under the chairmanship of a
former chief justice of India has also been put in place for
redressing complaints relating to broadcast of such incidents,
he said. His ministry had issued show cause notices in more
than 263 cases and some channels were taken off the air for
specific periods and in some cases their licences were cancelled.
He
said a Standing Committee had been set up under the chairmanship
of the Secretary in his ministry with representatives from
various ministries and news broadcasters, sociologists, and
experts from various fields to frame basic guidelines on the
content of the entertainment that could be allowed to be broadcast
or telecast.
He
said the government had cleared as many as 417 television
channels out of which around 200 were devoted to news and
current affairs.
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