Govt formalising complaint mech on obscene TV content: Rathore

The government today said it is in the process of formalising a complaint redressal mechanism against objectionable and obscene content on television, as members in the Rajya Sabha expressed concern over the issue.
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore also said that self-regulation mechanisms existed but pre-censorship was not an option.
During the Question Hour, he said that in a judgement in January this year, the Supreme Court had advised that a complaint redressal mechanism should be formalised.
Government is in the process of formalising a complaint redressal mechanism, including the period in which a complaint can be filed, the concerned statutory authority which shall adjudicate, appellate and other redressal mechanisms.

It would lead to a final conclusive determination by suitably amending the Cable TV (Regulation) Act, 1995, he said.
Responding to supplementaries, the Minister said there are 900 TV channels which showed advertisements round the clock but pre-censorship was not a consideration.
Earlier, a member had expressed concern about the "pornographic content" in an advertisement. Some members also expressed concerns about "fake news" spread by TV channels.
Rathore said that a News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) existed to deal with such cases.