Broadcast Bill Unnecessary: Sawant Chief 5 Col

Press Council of India chairman Justice P B Sawant yesterday created a flutter by describing the broadcasting bill as unnecessary and unwarranted. Addressing a seminar organised in the capital by the Centre for Media Studies, Sawant said the bill was in direct conflict with the Prasar Bharati Act and provisions of the Constitution.

Sawant said foreign satellite channels do not need to apply for a licence. The print media should be totally banned from having stakes in the electronic media, he added.

When it was pointed out to him by STAR TV chief executive (South Asia) R Basu that section 13 of the bill specifically states that after a month of the commencement of the Act, satellite broadcasting services would need to obtain a licence from the proposed broadcast authority, Sawant said, This section pertains to the cable operators.

It was left to B G Verghese, former editor of The Hindustan Times and The Indian Express, and other media experts to clarify that section 13 of the broadcast bill pertains to licensing of foreign satellite channels and not cable operators. Sawant urged the government to immediately withdraw the broadcast bill and implement the Prasar Bharati Act. The broadcasting bill would only help affluent individuals and institutions and encourage monopolistic tendencies, he said, while lamenting that the public sector was being treated as an untouchable.

Information and broadcasting minister S Jaipal Reddy said the government was totally opposed to any control on the electronic media, had an open mind on every provision of the new broadcasting bill and was ready to incorporate necessary amendments.

The minister said the 30-member joint Parliamentary committee set up to examine the bill was absolutely free to consider all aspects. The committee, which will hold its first formal meeting today, is fully capable of arriving at a consensus, the minister said. It has been asked to submit its report to Parliament by July 23, Reddy added.

The minister said the government would make concerted efforts to ensure that both the proposed Prasar Bharati Corporation for granting autonomy to Doordarshan and All-India Radio, and the proposed Broadcasting Authority of India would be set up this year. Reddy admitted that the BAI has been a crying need for the last six years to regulate broadcast activities in India.

The minister said the mistake of not granting uplinking facilities to private parties is likely to be rectified. Its better later than never, he quipped, adding that the bill is aimed at providing a level playing field to domestic operators.

The minister clarified that the government was not opposed to direct-to-home (DTH) operations in the country. We are not opposed to this technology. But we want regulation. Our intention is not to control at all.

In his brief remarks, joint Parliamentary committee chairman Sharad Pawar said the committee has an open mind and would like to meet everybody concerned with broadcasting. Pointing out anomalies in the bill, STAR TVs R Basu said satellite channels are not licensed anywhere in the world except China, Iran and Malaysia. I hope we as Indians would not like to fall into that category, he added.

Highlighting that Doordarshans international channel, DD India, is beamed into the US, the UK and elsewhere in the world, Basu said other countries may follow Indias example of licensing and ask DD to obtain a licence for the satellite channel.

Explaining the difficulties in restructuring the equity of a foreign channel as it goes out to many countries, Basu pointed out that having a majority Indian stake for India would upset the business plans of most channels.

Speaking on cross-media restrictions, legal expert Monroe Price said governments around the world are allowing greater vertical access to media companies and relaxing cross-media curbs. The broadcasting bill proposes to put a 20 per cent cap on cross-media holdings for a company which is already active in the print medium.

Former Union minister for information and broadcasting Vasant Sathe said the government had to take adequate safeguards to ensure that the broadcasting authority was closely monitored and made accountable.

Devendra Verma of US-based Loral Space said the number of full-time members in the authority should be increased and restrictions on cross-media holdings eased. Former information & broadcasting secretary S S Gill was of the opinion that the provision in the bill to control cable networks may turn out to be disastrous.