Anurag Thakur: According to Anurag Thakur, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, the central government has blocked 84 online news channels and 23 news websites this year.
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Anurag Thakur explains to Rajya Sabha MP V Sivadasan
Anurag Thakur told Rajya Sabha MP V Sivadasan that last year, 22 news channels were temporarily suspended and 23 channels were suspended for violating the Cable Television Networks Rules.
Anurag Thakur stated this year that the ministry temporarily revoked the licences of five television channels and revoked the licences of six channels for failing to comply with the Policy Guidelines or the Programme and Advertisement Code under the Cable Television Networks Rules in 2022.
In 2020, seven news channels were temporarily suspended, and 12 were suspended for rule violations. Six channels were temporarily suspended in 2019, and ten channels were suspended for the same reason.
Thakur stated that on June 17, 2021, the central government amended the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994 to provide for a statutory mechanism for the redressal of grievances/complaints for violations of the Programme Code and Advertising Code of television channels broadcast.
The rules establish a three-tiered complaint redressal mechanism: Level I by the broadcasters, Level II by the broadcasters’ self-regulating bodies, and Level III by the central government’s oversight mechanism.
In accordance with the provisions of the Cable Television Networks (Amendment) Rules, 2021, the central government established an Inter-Departmental Committee (IDC) chaired by the Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and comprised of representatives from the Ministries of Women and Child Development, Home Affairs, Electronics and Information Technology, External Affairs, Defence, and representatives from other ministries.
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Role of Inter-Departmental Committee
An Inter-Departmental Committee investigates complaints and grievances and makes recommendations to the central government.
The committee’s role is to advise, warn, censure, admonish, or reprimand the broadcaster; or to require an apology from the broadcaster; or to require the broadcaster to include a warning card or a disclaimer; or to require the broadcaster to delete or modify the content or to take the channel or a programme off-air for a specified time period where it is satisfied that such action is warranted, for reasons to be documented in writing.
The central government bases its decisions on the recommendations of the IDC.
As a result, the government has an institutional mechanism in place to take action against private satellite TV channels that violate the Programme Code and Advertising Code.
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