NEW DELHI: Minister of State S Jagathrakshakan who had been moved from Information and Broadcasting Ministry in the reshuffle has been allocated the portfolio of Commerce and Industry.

After the reshuffle on 28 October, Jagathrakshakan had been given the New and Renewable Energy portfolio.

In another change, Minister of State Milind Deora who is MoS in the Communications & Information Technology has also been given the portfolio of Shipping.

New Delhi: The Delhi government on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that it has written to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and others for stopping misleading commercials in media claiming magical cures for diseases.

It has come to the notice of the Drugs Control department that several persons/firms are giving advertisements in the electronic media as well as in the print media about certain drugs/articles/machines whose usage, as per their claims, would lead to the cure of such diseases, disorder or condition.

"These advertisements are often published with a view to misleading the general public," the Delhi government told Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw.

The Court was hearing a public interest litigation seeking prosecution of self-proclaimed godman Nirmaljeet Singh Narula, alias Nirmal Baba. The case was disposed of after the Court was told that no material was found to try him for allegedly duping people in the garb of providing magical treatment. The government filed its reply after the High Court had on May 16 issued notices to it and others on the PIL filed by A K Jain through his lawyer Sugriv Dubey.

The government also said that besides the Ministry, it has also written to Press Information Bureau, Press Council of India, and Advertising Standards Council of India for bringing the information to the knowledge of "media houses that such commercials are in contravention" of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act.

"The Act prohibits the advertisement of certain drugs for treatment of certain diseases, disorders," the Drugs Control Department said.

NEW DELHI: The Press Council of India (PCI) has again urged the Union Government to bring all media, including the electronic and social media, under its purview.

The PCI said it had asked the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to carry out necessary amendments in this regard.

The PCI said that experience had shown that "the claim of the broadcast media for self-regulation is futile and meaningless, because self-regulation is an oxymoron."

The PCI referred to recent incidents where social networking sites were used to spread rumours that triggered exodus of people belonging to north-eastern states to justify its demand for widening its area of operation and said there should not be any "dilly-dallying" in the matter by the Government.

The statement said the PCI had resolved that the "Government of India be requested to initiate suitable legislation to amend the Press Council Act, 1978, by bringing the electronic media (both broadcast and social media) within the purview of the Press Council Act, and renaming it as The Media Council."

The PCI also sought more powers for itself, the statement said, adding that it had passed a resolution to this effect at a meeting in the capital. "Journalistic ethics apply not only to the print media but also to the electronic media, and hence there is no reason why electronic media be not regulated by a statutory body, when the print media is regulated," it said.

PCI Chairperson Justice Markanday Katju has in the past also expressed views that the electronic media should be under the purview of the council.

The PCI also gave reasons for passing the resolution to include the electronic and the social media within its ambit. "When the Press Council Act was enacted, there was no electronic media, and hence there was no need for any legislation for regulating the electronic media. Subsequently, the electronic media has come into existence. Journalistic ethics apply not only to the print media but also to the electronic media," it said.

"All social activity has to be regulated. Regulation is different from control. In control, there is no freedom, while in regulation, there is freedom but it is subject to reasonable restrictions in the public interest," the PCI statement said.

The Press Council also said that it was in favour of only regulation and not control, and that this regulation should be by an independent statutory authority like the Press Council of India and not the government.

The Council said that it presently has 28 members (apart from the Chairman), of which 20 are representatives of the Press. These 20 members are not appointed by the government but elected by press bodies. All important decisions are taken by majority vote. If the electronic media is also brought under the Press Council (to be named The Media Council), the electronic media will also have their representatives in the Council," it said in its statement.

"In recent times, experience has shown that the unregulated electronic media is playing havoc with the lives of the people. An example is what happened to the people of North-East," the PCI statement said.

"Hence, the Press Council resolved that now the time has come when there should not be any dilly-dallying in the matter by the Government, and the amendments to the Press Council Act, as proposed above, should be made forthwith," the PCI said.

New Delhi: A fresh approval of the union cabinet will be sought for the maiden e-auction of Phase III of FM Radio licences as certain new aspects have come to light after the earlier clearance.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has prepared a note that encompasses the news aspects and circulated it to the concerned ministries/departments for their views, before it is put up for approval of the cabinet in the next few weeks.

The Information and Broadcasting ministry has said issues such as charging of migration fee from existing permission holders, and specific departures in the Requests for Proposals (RFP) from agencies interested in conducting the e-auction on behalf of the ministry, had not been taken into account when the cabinet approval for the Phase III auctions were obtained on 7 July last year.

The issues relating to the e-auction were pointed out by the inter-ministerial committee set up in November last year and headed by the then additional secretary in the I&B Ministry Rajiv Takroo.

The nine-member committee, with I&B joint secretary - broadcasting Supriya Sahu as the member-secretary, was set up to ‘guide and supervise the process of e-auction and grant of licences to private parties‘ in Phase III.

Meanwhile, the ministry has decided to commence work on the e-auctions and has called for tenders. The pre-qualification of the bidders is expected to be completed in about another two months, following which the companies that qualify will be allowed to participate in the e-auction for FM radio Phase III licences. The e-auction is expected to begin early next year.

FM Phase III Policy will extend FM radio services to about 227 new cities with a total of 839 new FM radio channels in 294 cities. A total of 216 cities and towns will get private FM radio stations for the first time, out of the 302 identified by the government and split into four categories.

In Phase III, 67 of the 86 cities and towns which already have private FM Radio channels will get additional channels. All cities with a population of 100,000 and above are entitled to get private FM radio channels in Phase III auctions.

The committee was expected to finalise and seek approval for the Request for Proposal document for selection of agency for conducting the e-auction, review the auction framework, finalise the auction documentation, conduct and oversee open house sessions for stakeholders, and guide the agency selected for the e-auction.

A separate Appellate Review Committee was also set up to scrutinize the short-listing of prospective bidders headed by the Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor in the I&B ministry. This committee will scrutinize various details including the net worth of prospective bidders and put them up on the ministry website, scrutinize bank guarantees and oversee the other work in that connection.

Private FM Radio broadcasters in North East (NE) Region and Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and Island territories will be required to pay half the rate of annual license fee for an initial period of three years from the date from which the annual license fee becomes payable and the permission period of fifteen years begins. The revised fee structure has also been made applicable for a period of three years, from the date of issuance of guidelines, to the existing operators in these states to enable them to effectively compete with the new operators.

Apart from the fee relaxation, Prasar Bharati infrastructure would be made available at half the lease rentals for similar category cities in such areas. The limit on the ownership of channels, at the national level, allocated to an entity has been retained at 15 per cent. However, channels allotted in Jammu & Kashmir, North Eastern States and island territories will be allowed over and above the 15 per cent national limit to incentivise the bidding for channels in such areas.

A total of 245 FM channels are currently operational in 87 cities, each with a population of over 300,000 or more.

Meanwhile, All India Radio (AIR) is working on a plan to increase the coverage of its FM Radio channels from 37 to 90 per cent of the population, in a modernisation programme undertaken since 2011 and expected to be completed by 2016. AIR has already covered 99 per cent of the population with its analogue technology channels.

NEW DELHI: Twenty of the 48 show causes issued to regional television channels in the last three years were referred to the self-regulatory bodies of the news and general entertainment television channels.

Only one complaint was referred by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).

Most of the matters referred to the regulatory bodies - as many as 18 to the News Broadcasters Standards Authority and two to the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council - have been resolved by imposing fines or advisories to the channels.

Advisories were issued by the Ministry in nine cases, and warnings issued in five cases. While one matter is sub judice because it relates to reportage by TV 5 about the death of a former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, two cases were closed because no violation was found.

Matters relating to programmes by News Live, Jaya Max, Asianet Plus, Kolkata TV, India Vision, SS TV, and NTV are under consideration of the Ministry, and the reply of the Central Board of Film Certification is awaited with regard to telecast of song of adult nature in the case of Raj Parivar TV.

Only one channel ? SS Music ? was forced in the last three years to stop beaming for about a week in February this year, while News 9 was asked to run an apology scroll for three days for telecast of an obscene programme.