NEW DELHI : Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni today said that self-regulation by the electronic media has to be given a chance as this was a surer way of improving things than forcing regulations on the television or radio channels.

Soni said the progress of action against channels may appear slow, but the government had offending channels to go off air for short periods even as she added that she would not like to cancel the licence of any channel, though the Ministry had the power to do so.

She was responding to Press Council of India Chairman Justice Markanday Katju who said he had seen the self-regulation of TV channels working effectively and 90 per cent of the software on television channels was entertainment and just ten per cent dealt with crucial issues facing the nation.

She was giving her inaugural address at the 9th Annual Summit on Entertainment and Growth organised by ASSOCHAM, Focus 2012 on ?Digitization for Inclusive Growth?, where Justice Katju delivered the keynote address. Several awardees of the National Film Awards were felicitated by Film Federation of India President Vinod K Lamba. Two documents ? ?Digitizing Indian Broadcasting? by ASSOCHAM and Centre for Media Studies, and ?Digital Transformation in entertainment and media? by ASSOCHAM and PwC ? were also released.

She admitted that in the desire for growth, it was unfortunate that some provisions of the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act had been overlooked by the media, but she said that self-regulation could help to correct this malaise.

Soni also justified digitisation of cable addressable systems and the sunset dates as she said any delay will only help the direct-to-home operators. She said that it would also bring in transparency and get over the dependence of channels on television rating points (TRPs) which were based on studies in less than 10,000 TV households. Cable operators must not lose sight of the fact that DTH was growing at the rate of around one million households per month.

She said that the government had had exhaustive consultations with stakeholders on all issues including the carriage fee, and the main aim of the new regulations had been to benefit the consumer.

She said the biggest benefit of digitisation would be that the viewer would be able to choose channels of his or her choice out of 900 channels on offer.

Referring to the National Film Awards given yesterday which showed a resurgence of regional cinema, she announced that all award-winning films would be shown on Doordarshan.

Answering another point made by Justice Katju, she said that while the malaise of paid news existed it was difficult to detect.

Earlier, Justice Katju was unsparing in his criticism of the media which he said worked only as a commercial enterprise which had blocked progress and had no care of the consequences on the people. He said the media had lost a sense of propriety and was diverting from the real issues.

He was categorical that self-regulation would not work and it was necessary to bring in a regulatory body which was statutory but not headed by anyone in the government. Stressing that he was a great votary of freedom of the media, he said he wanted regulation, and not control.

He said freedom of the press was like a knife which could be used to help or stab the people. At a time when 90 per cent of even the educated believed in casteism and superstition, it was very wrong for TV channels to propagate this through various serials, commercial advertisements, and the presence of so-called sages.

"Astrology is pure nonsense, but gets high TRPs and so media stoops to this low level," he added.

While Article 19(1)(a) is always referred to whenever the channels feel their freedom is being trampled upon, they forget the mention of promotion of scientific temper in the Fundamental Duties listed in Article 51.

He said cricket had become the opium of the masses in a country which saw an average of 47 farmer suicides a day and 47 per cent of the children were under-nourished.

Lamba said in his address called for a consultative committee of the film industry and the Ministry so that thorny subjects could be ironed out.

He said though the issue of service tax had been ironed out to an extent by the government, there were many other problems afflicting the film industry. He wanted the centre and states to help the growth of regional cinema.

He said the present losses because of piracy amount to around Rs 4.3 billion, but he was confident this would come down with newer technologies coming in.

NEW DELHI: Riddled by a difference of opinion between the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and the Human Resource Development Ministry, the Copyright (Amendment) Bill was not placed for consideration by the Union Cabinet at its meeting here.

The legislation, which has been seen by stakeholders and the Departmentally-related Parliamentary Committee, would have gone to Parliament after approval of the Cabinet. It will now be placed before the Cabinet after both Ministries agree on the changes.

It is understood that the HRD Ministry made several changes, contrary to the report of the Parliamentary Committee.

The amendments to the Copyright Bill were supposed to drop the controversial statutory licensing clause for radio broadcast.

The amendment to the Copyright Act 1958, aims at according un-assignable rights to ?creative artists? such as lyricists, playback singers, music directors, film directors, dialogue writers who will be paid royalty every time the movie they have worked in is aired on a television channel.

The Bill has also been challenged by the film industry, book publishers and the broadcasting industry.

The legislation was opposed in Parliament in the last session over the statutory licencing for radio broadcast of literary and musical works.

Meanwhile, India?s radio operators are protesting the move by the HRD Ministry to significantly alter an earlier version of the Copyright Amendment Bill 2010.

Association of Radio Operators for India (AROI) president Anurradha Prasad has written to I&B Minister Ambika Soni pointing out the adverse impact of a proposed change in the Bill by the HRD Ministry from the previous versions.

Prasad told Indiantelevision.com that the version of the Bill, which was tabled in the Parliament late last year, mandates statutory licensing of music by a body called Copyright Board, at rates prescribed by that agency. Now there is a proposal to delete the statutory licensing clause.

"Absence of such a regulation would mean that there would be too many bodies and companies demanding different royalty rates and representing different rights. Statutory licensing makes it easier for both radio companies to pay royalty and for music companies to collect royalty. This in fact is the only practical way as otherwise rate disputes and rights disputes would hamper growth of both radio and music industries," Prasad said in her letter to Soni.

Prasad said the distribution of royalty between various music right owners was best managed by the Copyright Board as per laws and regulations existing from time to time. "The scenario desired is one collection and distribution agency governed by Copyright Board to whom radio can pay royalty and obtain statutory license," she said.

NEW DELHI: With both Universities and the private sector setting up mass communications schools, the Government has decided to review the mushrooming of such institutions across the country.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said her Ministry was already consulting the Human Resource Development Ministry on constituting a committee for this purpose. The committee would comprise key stakeholders associated with the issue.

Meanwhile, she said the Government had initiated measures to establish Regional Centres of Indian Institute of Mass Communications at Aizawl, Amravati, Kerala and Jammu to promote excellence in journalism. The Minister said she was confident that by the end of the year, an Act of Parliament could be enacted whereby IIMC would become an institute of excellence.

The Minister was speaking after conferring the Seema Nazreth Award for Journalistic Excellence to Indulekha Arvind of Business Standard. The Award instituted by Business Standard, she said, provided the ideal platform to nurture true talent based on professionalism, skills and aptitude for journalism. The criteria for selecting the winner of the award was quite rigorous based on quality of writing, information gathering, analysis and the impact of the published work on society.

The Minister said she was confident that the ongoing debate in the country on the issue of regulation and self-regulation in the electronic and print media would help in bringing about a consensus and a new perspective on issues related to the freedom of press.

Lauding the development of the media and entertainment industry in the country, the Minister said the media landscape had placed India in an exciting position globally where growth was robust with over 82000 publications and 800 channels in the broadcast media. The Media and Entertainment Sector in India grew at 11.2 per cent in 2010. The Minister spoke of the need to focus on celebrating with pride the diversity of India while at the same time appreciating the richness of Indian culture.