Govt penalises 3 channels for showing adult content

Submitted by ITV Production on Jan 09
indiantelevision.com Team

NEW DELHI: The central government has directed all cable and direct-to-home (DTH) television platforms not to carry SS TV channel for a fortnight from the midnight of 15 January to the midnight of 30 January for telecasting the trailer of adult film ?Friends with benefits? on 30 September 2011.

Television transmission platforms have also been prohibited from carrying Zing and Enterr 10 television channels for one day from midnight of 12 January for telecasting adult films in violation of the programme code.

The orders follow decisions of the inter-ministerial committee of the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry that the telecasts were in violation of Rule 6(t) (n) and Rule 6(t)(o) of the programme code under Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 and rules framed there under.

The SS TV channel (then SS Music Channel) had telecast a trailer of adult feature film ?Friends with Benefits? even though it was not certified by CBFC for telecast on TV channels.

While Zing TV had telecast the adult film ?Hawas? in January, the Enterr 10 channel telecast three Hindi feature films -- ?Musafir? on 29 September 2011, ?Plan? on 19 October 2011 and ?Aashiq Banaya Apnne? on 31 January 2012.

In the case of ?Hawas?, the directive noted that the film showed visuals of passionate love making and kissing scenes between a couple, who were shown to be clinging to each other and writhing in bed in an explicit portrayal of sexual desires overpowering them. Such a portrayal is distinctly meant for adult audience, for which CBFC had appropriately given "A" certification to the said film.

In all cases, show cause notices were issued to the channels and their replies and counter-replies considered before the action was announced. The committee had also given the channels a hearing before finalising the orders on Tuesday.