‘TV channels asked to show content in national interest if asked’

The new guidelines issued by the Union Cabinet on Thursday give the government the power to compel all Indian television channels to broadcast ‘content in the national interest’ on basis of a “general advisory” that it may issue to them “from time to time”.

While channels will have the freedom to make and broadcast their own content to meet this obligation and the new guidelines themselves use the phrase “may undertake public service broadcasting for a minimum period of 30 minutes in a day…”, the government has said it intends to monitor this programming to ensure compliance, according to The Wire. However, the rule for the compulsory broadcast of officially mandated content ‘in the national interest’ uses explicit language: “35(3). The Central Government may, from time to time, issue general advisory to the channels for telecast of content in national interest, and the channel shall comply with the same.”

After After 11 years, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting approved the guidelines for the uplinking and downlinking of TV channels. The guidelines were first issued in 2005 and revised in 2011.

Television channels will have to broadcast 30 minutes of public interest content every day on themes of national interest such as education and spread of literacy, agriculture and rural development, health and family welfare, science and technology, the welfare of women, welfare of the weaker sections of the society, protection of the environment and of cultural heritage and national integration, reported the Mint.

“It is not that the government will give any programmes to the television channels for broadcasting under public interest content. The channels are free to create their own content on the themes mentioned in the guidelines,” I&B Secretary Apurva Chandra said.

Among themes of national interest, the guideline mentions the following:

• education and spread of literacy;
• agriculture and rural development;
• health and family welfare;
• science and technology;
• welfare of women;
• welfare of the weaker sections of the society;
• protection of environment and of cultural heritage; and
• national integration.

The move is expected to allow television channels of Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal to uplink from India, instead of Singapore, the preferred uplinking hub for channels beamed in the subcontinent, according to The Wire. Currently, only 30 channels are uplinked from India out of the total 897 registered with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.