SC grants Centre 4 weeks to give content code for TV channels

The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave four weeks time to the Centre to submit guidelines for regulating contents of programmes telecast by TV channels on the lines of those evolved by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), a conglomerate of over 200 channels including the Prasar Bharti. Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam tabled before a bench of Justices B N Aggrawal and G S Singhvi, the"draft television content code" framed by the IBF aimed at ensuring responsible coverage by TV channels in a manner acceptable to all viewers. In an earlier hearing, Subramaniam had told the bench that the Centre instead of being seen as a regulator would like to adopt the self-regulatory code evolved by the IBF, subject to the final approval by the Government. The draft guidelines tabled in the apex court today come in that backdrop. Common Cause, NGO, had earlier filed a PIL in the apex court seeking regulatory measures to curb the "growing obscenity, violence and other disturbing" contents being shown by some TV channels. According to the code, it would be the responsibility of the broadcasters that nothing is included in the programmes of any television service which is against public interest, national harmony or which genuinely offends good taste and decency. Among other things the self-regulatory code seeks to ensure that social issues like institution of marriage should be treated with responsibility, while issues like adultery, promiscuity, sex, obscenity and nudity should not be promoted. "Portrayals of sexual behaviour should be discreet and infrequent. Sexual innuendos or suggestiveness should not be crude and offensive," the code stated.

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