Rising ire over TV channels ban

NEW DELHI: First it was AXN that was yanked off the air, now it’s FTV and reports are that the plug might be pulled on CNBC Awaaz shortly. This scissor-happy moral policing by the government has got the goat of several top media watchers who feel the I&B ministry is going a tad too far in throttling adult content on TV.

Said angry adman Prahlad Kakkar: ‘‘Moral policing of an adult channel is highly objectionable. In any case, there is no moral fibre in this country. The government and the ministry are just diverting public attention from larger issues by indulging in trivial pursuits.’’

Adds media expert Santosh Desai, ‘‘There’s an element of randomness in these actions. While FTV going off air is no real loss to mankind, on grounds of principle, the move is disquieting. We do need to regulate the programming allowed on Indian TV but that must be through a transparent, consistent procedure.’’

Many TV channels feel Desai has hit the nub of the issue. The ministry, they feel, is acting in an arbitrary fashion. The absence of a well-defined content code and an independent regulator can allow the government of the day to twist the media’s arm on the basis of loose terms currently used by the ministry to wield the axe.

Media watchers say there should be a calibrated process, under which a channel is first warned, then fined if it persists with objectionable content. Yanking a channel off the air must be the very last step, not a knee-jerk reaction.

himanshi.dhawan@timesgroup.com & anubha.sawhney@timesgroup.com