Broadcast Bill Rohitha Sankar BA Journalism

1. Broadcast Bill

2.  In May 1997, the Broadcasting Bill was
introduced in parliament
 The bill makes it mandatory for all channels
whether Indian or foreign to transmit their
programs from Indian territory
 Licenses for satellite channels will be
granted only to Indian companies and they
would be allowed up to 49% foreign equity
 No foreign equity for terrestrial channels
would be allowed

3.  The bill bans cross-media ownership and
foreign ownership
 No advertising agencies, religious bodies,
political parties or publicly funded bodies
will be granted a license to own a Television
company

4.  In India, Radio and Television broadcasting
have been a monopoly of the Central
Government. The Indian Telegraph Act,
1885, a law enacted by the British, has
been used to bar private
entrepreneurs from entering the
broadcasting arena.

5.  All this suddenly changed with the advent of
the satellite TV in this part of the world in
early 1990s. As demand for information and
entertainment grew, entrepreneurs, mostly
in the informal sector, started setting up
small cable TV operations all over the
country.

6.  The telecommunication revolution had
suddenly arrived on the Indian horizon,
virtually bypassing the government.
Inevitably this gave rise to a lot of discussion
in the media and elsewhere about
"cultural invasion", "promotion of
consumerism", "possibility of propaganda
and misinformation campaigns from
abroad", etc. There was even some talk
about the feasibility of banning satellite dish
antennas.

7.  First, the government reacted by enacting
the Cable TV Network Act, 1994. It sought
toregulate the thousands of cable TV
operators.

8.  In the next year the Supreme Court ruled
that "the broadcasting media should be
under the control of the public as distinct
from the government." It also held
that the electromagnetic spectrum was a
public property and not a state monopoly.
The Court directed the Central
Government to "take immediate steps to
establish an independent public authority
representing all sections and interests in the
society to control and regulate the use of the
Airwaves."

9.  It has taken the government two years to
come up with the Broadcast Bill, 1997

10.  The Bill aims to provide a "level playing
field to Indian
entities" and "facilitating private
broadcasting" to ensure "variety and
plurality of programmes required in
different regions and different sections of
society in our vast country."

11.  The Bill seeks to set up an "autonomous"
Broadcasting Authority of India
(BAI) to regulate broadcasting by
licensing broadcasters, allocating
frequencies on the electromagnetic
spectrum, monitor quality, cost and content
of service.

12.  Bill will become "catalyst for social
change", "promotion of values of Indian
culture" by curbing monopolistic trends
and ensuring competition.

13.  The new broadcast regulations of the
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
(I&B) will not only cover television content
but also films.
 With the new guidelines, the ministry plans
to regulate depictions of terrorism, violence,
armed forces, religion, communal issues and
obscenity in the movies.

14.  Aims to provide strong centralized regulation
of cable and broadcasting
 An aim to regulate certain aspects of
carriage and content of broadcasting
 No broadcasting service would be possible
without obtaining a license in this regard
 License to be obtained from a statutory body

15.  The draft bill proposes to set up an
independent Broadcasting Regulatory
Authority of India (BRAI) and one its major
functions would be monitoring and regulation
of content
 The broadcast bill has been embroiled in
controversy as many fear that the statute
and the proposed content code may be used
by the government to control and muzzle the
electronic media.

16.  The issue came into sharp focus after the
26/11 Mumbai attacks when the government
felt that the 24/7 competitive coverage of
the carnage by TV channels had
compromised national security by giving
away to the attackers details of the
movement of the security forces and of the
civilians trapped in Mumbai’s Taj Hotel

17.  Information and Broadcasting Minister
Ambika Soni has stressed on debate among
stakeholders to evolve a consensus on the
contentious issue

18.  Every service provider to register his TV or
Radio channel with the Broadcasting
Regulatory authority of India
 BRAI – Proposed independent regulator for
the broadcasting sector

19.  Content that is obscene or vulgar
 Of a terrorist organisation
 Copyright protected
 Of a Foreign channel

20.  In the event of a war or a natural calamity of
a national magnitude
 Power of the central govt to take over the
management and control of any broadcasting
service or any facility connected with it

21.  Restrictions imposed on accumulation of
interest
 An attempt to prevent media consolidation
 To prevent monopoly across different
segments of the media
 Broadcast bill to cover the content of
advertisements