Govt to finalise Broadcast Bill after receiving states' views

The government today said it would take a decision on the Broadcast Bill once it receives comments from all states and Union Territories.

Addressing mediapersons' queries on the much delayed Bill, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Anand Sharma said: "We had sought comments from states and Union Territories on the proposed Bill which would deal with regulation of content. Till date, we have received replies only from 11 states and four Union Territories."

The Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill calls for regulation of television content and also proposes setting up of body to monitor content.

Sharma, who was interacting with journalists at the "Economic Editors Conference" here, said as far as revision of content code was concerned, the Supreme Court "is already seized of the matter and the existing content code needs to be amended and updated in view of so many channels cropping up".

The minister said an inter-ministerial committee headed by I&B secretary had held discussions on revision of content code and had submitted a report in March this year to the ministry.

"We are currently speaking to broadcasters to evolve an early consensus on the issue of revising the content code," Sharma told reporters.

He, however, added that the ministry has a monitoring committee in place and it takes action whenever any violation on part of any channel or broadcaster is reported. "We have already pulled seven television channels off air permanently and have taken precautionary action on other channels also," the minister said.