TV Censorship in India

Adult content may be back on TV with the information and broadcasting ministry considering a proposal to be more liberal, government sources have said.

If the adult programmes return, however, they will be allowed only between 11pm and 4am. Programmes beamed at any other time must be appropriate for viewing by children, the proposal under discussion says.

The government had banned adult content on television in 2006, allowing only programmes that had a “U” certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for unrestricted public exhibition.

Its notification said that no film, or film song or film promo or film trailer or music video or music albums or their promos, whether produced in India or abroad, shall be carried through cable service unless it has been certified by the CBFC as suitable for unrestricted public exhibition in India.

The current rethink has been prompted by suggestions from a committee set up to review the Programme and Advertising Code under the Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act and the guidelines for certification of films under the Cinematograph Act.

The adult content will be restricted to films and music videos with “A” certification, the official added, saying: Adult content need not mean pornography.

There are debates going on in India to adopt a content censor, similar to the UK's OFCOM, in order to curb what is seen as a obscenity and vulgarity on TV and radio.

A parliamentary discussion in New Delhi saw India's Broadcasting Minister, Mrs Ambika Soni, state that such a body with some teeth was the only way to cut vulgarity on certain shows especially reality TV programming in the sub-Continent.

Soni suggested that the government would support the creation of such a body, membership of which would include key stakeholders in the media, lawyers and consumer organisations.

With broadcasters and the government close to working out a new content code for television, foreign movies with partial nudity and mature content may soon be allowed at all time bands on digital addressable media platforms like direct-to-home (DTH) services, conditional access system and IPTV platforms, which have the provision of a parental lock.

Currently, all foreign language films, even after adult certification from their country of origin, have to get approval from the Indian censor boards. To get the nod, they invariably have to undertake re-editing of the objectionable portions in the films, in accordance with the existing programme code under the cable TV law.

The existing analogue cable services may also be allowed to show adult content on television (foreign cinema to start with) but from 11 pm to 4 am only, as a broad consensus is being arrived at on the draft content code between the government and broadcasters, pending resolution for over two years.

This comes after the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) re-started discussion on the new content code with broadcasters. Government sources say at the most three to four more meetings will be required to finalise the code, that will replace the existing one, adapted from the guidelines drafted for Doordarshan decades earlier.

Calling for a powerful moral guardian for the society, the Madras high court has favoured a stringent censor mechanism to vet television programmes that contain violence, obscenity and vulgarity.

Justice R Regupathi, quashing defamation proceedings initiated against actor Vijay in various courts of Tamil Nadu observed: The most dangerous trend is, there are certain channels which exclusively air music and fashion programmes with semi-nudity and adult content, and school-going children, who have free access to remotes, get to view such channels. Their character and psychology is hardened at a tender age...and it is feared that good behaviour, human values and moral standards would be stripped away forever.

He was passing orders on the petitions filed by Vijay, producer of Sivakasi AM Rathinam and its director Perarasu, who sought quashing of over a dozen defamation proceedings initiated by advocates in different courts. Advocates, represented by S Prabakaran, claimed the film scornfully ridiculed the legal profession. During the hearing, the crew apologised for the scenes and said objectionable portions had already been deleted.

Recording the apology, the judge quashed the complaints, but with an observation: The film industry too has social and moral responsibilities... Of late, it is irritating to note that corruptive, pointless and irresponsible messages are being conveyed through movies in the name of entertainment.

Justice Regupathi lamented that most of the movies, documentaries, serials, music and dance programmes televised ceaselessly contained obscene, vulgar and violent scenes, besides promoting supernatural and superstitious beliefs. In such a critical situation, clear and stringent censorship guidelines for TV programmes must be laid down, he observed.

He said: The need of the hour is, apart from scrutiny of films, there should also be a close monitoring of television programmes so as to check lapses and to instantly initiate steps against transgressors. Such a governing body should be powerful, unbiased and mindful of its role and responsibility as a moral guardian of the society.

Despite its active participation in content regulation on Indian TV, the information and broadcasting ministry has suggested independent regulation by private players.

The government feels that there must be some sort of independent regulation. Every country has it but India doesn't. We have so many channels but no regulators. It doesn't make sense to us that we should be sitting over it (content regulation), said I&B ministry Joint Secretary Zohra Chatterji.

The content code has layers - self regulation and peer evaluation followed by independent regulation. The broadcasters came to us to leave it to them for some time. Above all, the prime minister has already made it clear that it (if anything is done by I&B) shall be done only after the widest possible consultations, she added.

India's Information & Broadcasting Minister, Ambika Soni, said she herself was 'shocked' by some of the serials she sees on air.

Some serials are meaningless and take us back in time. I don't want to be a censor board for TV...BUT...we are talking about homes which have just one TV. So there have to be some self-regulatory norms because what enters our rooms has to be separate from films, she said.

The Minister also said that if self-regulatory norms don't work, the government will have to step in.

She added that she wanted to review the entire ratings system for television or Television Rating Points: The present system of TRPs is not adequate.

In an attempt to control news channels, the Indian government has proposed setting up of a government appointed committee - the National Broadcast Authority of India - that will have the power to screen programmes or advertisements before broadcast, and formulate the content code.

The committee will have all the powers that were part of the controversial Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, 2007, which had to be shelved because of fears that it would have led to censorship.

The I&B ministry's new draft envisages a three-tiered redressal structure with the initial two tiers of content monitoring being that of self-regulation. Grievances or complaints that are not settled by the channel itself or by the industry association (at the second level) will then go to the NBAI. The NBAI will be the final authority for all issues related to content and carriage.

While the oversight-of-last resort arrangement is clearly meant to ward off criticism that government wants to control content, this by itself may not assuage the concerns of censorship.

The ministry's task force report gives the NBAI the power to authorise officers to block news content if public tranquility is disturbed. It also suggests that the government retain powers to intervene in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of the country.

The NBAI will, according to the draft, comprise one representative of the media, while the other six members will include eminent persons with 15 years of experience from fields of law, public administration, finance, IT and social work.

News broadcasters expressed fears that the NBAI will be filled with retired bureaucrats or otherwise pliable civil society members as is the practice in nearly all regulatory authorities. The lone representative of media may find it difficult to put across his viewpoint.

Faced with a few complaints from viewers and women's outfits about indecent content, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has asked channels airing TV shows Bigg Boss and Rakhi ka Insaaf to air them only between 11 pm and 5 am, virtually bracketing them as only for adult viewing.

Both shows are not for universal viewing and can be aired only in the scheduled time slot, Information and Broadcasting Ministry officials said.

The shows cannot also be repeated in any other time slot or shown on news programmes, they said.

Currently both are prime time shows. Officials claimed this is the first time that the ministry has compulsorily changed time slots of popular TV shows.

The authorities concerns came to a head ten days ago in an episode of Rakhi's Justice. This resulted in presenter Rakhi Sawant, a dancer, model and actor, facing possible prosecution for abetting suicide and intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace. Viewers watched as Sawant, who judges marital disputes on the programme, systematically abused 24-year-old Laxman Prasad Ahirwal, calling him impotent.

Prasad's mother, Savitri Ahirwal, told reporters that her son was so upset with the indecent remarks that he stopped meeting any outsiders or neighbours … [he] went into acute depression and even stopped eating food ... He gradually became weak and frail and ultimately died.

Indian Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said that the Congress will constitute a panel headed by a retired judge to regulate television content in the country.

Soni was reacting to numerous complaints received by Members of Parliament (MPs) on supposedly increasing 'vulgarity' in TV reality shows.

We are right on the threshold of announcing a self-regulatory mechanism to monitor content on television, Soni told the Lok Sabha or the Lower House of the Parliament.

Replying to questions raised by MPs on the action taken by the government to monitor TV programs, the Information and Broadcasting Minister said that the panel once formed would take up complaints from the civil society.

By mid April, a panel headed by a retired judge with the mandate to monitor television channels will be in place.

It will report on sensitive and supposedly vulgar content on television. This panel will also take up public complaints regarding any 'objectionable' content on TV, ministry sources said.

A watershed period or time for adult viewing will be fixed from 11 pm to 5 am. Watershed hours will have content that is meant for selective viewing which may not necessarily mean adult content. So naturally it's not a free-for-all situation, the source said.

At present, the I&B ministry has facilities to record programmes of 300 TV channels on a 24-hour basis and store recorded content up to a period of 90 days.

There is a noisy debate in India on whether the media should be self-regulated or have a tough, outside authority do the job for it.

If you cannot do it yourself, then someone might just have to do it for you. That is what stands out from the Indian media debate.

While the print media gets away with gentle admonishment from the Press Council of India, there is no regulator that oversees the growing number of television channels in the country.

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Sunny Leone Biggest reasons for complaint

India's Broadcast Content Complaints Council (BCCC) received 3,441 complaints in six months since its inception in June last year, with biggest attractions for complaint being a Rakhi Sawant hosted programme and the appearance of porn star Sunny Leone in reality show Bigg Boss 5.

The self-regulatory body dismissed most of the complaints, officials said. Just 479 were specific complaints which were considered in remit and were heard by the Counci.

Among these 36 complaints specifically raised issues related to the appearance of Leone on Colors Channel programme Bigg Boss 5. Some of the complainants had claimed that children are being exposed to porn industry as they are getting curious to know who is a porn star.

BCCC upheld the whinges against Leone considering her appearance on Bigg Boss-5 to be promotional material for her own websites. The censor advised the channel to choose future participants with care.

The most complaints, 58, were received about the telecast of a programme Gazab Desh ki azab Kahania which was hosted by Rakhi Sawant on Imagine TV.

A majority of the other complainants objected to depiction of sexuality in television programmes. BCCC took action ranging for advising channels to not telecast programmes during general viewing hours to prohibiting telecast in some cases.

The last-minute cancellation of the TV broadcast of Milan Luthria's The Dirty Picture on Sunday afternoon has thrown open a heated discussion within the Central Board Of Film Censorship (CBFC) as to how Adults Only films can be cut for general TV viewing.

A source from the censor board said:

The experience with The Dirty Picture's deferred telecast proves that simply ordering extra cuts in an 'Adults' film is not enough when the very theme is adult.

Those members of the censor board who had viewed The Dirty Picture to certify it for satellite and television screening ordered 52 cuts. But those 52 cuts amounted to no more than 7 minutes of additional cuts. [These were sufficient for the CBFC to award a U/A certificate, previously sufficient for a TV airing].

On Thursday when the Information & Broadcasting ministry reacted to legal proceedings in UP courts against the scheduled telecast of The Dirty Picture on Sunday afternoon at a time when optimum kids and youngsters were glued to the IPL matches, two senior members of the censor board re-viewed the film and found that the content needed further toning down before telecast.

However, at this late stage the film's producers Balaji refused to comply. Censor certificate for telecast in hand, Sony Entertainment confidently marched towards a massive eyeball-grabbing telecast on Sunday afternoon and evening.

Apparently, the telecast was stopped minutes before the schedule playing time at 12 noon on the direct intervention of the I & B Ministry.

And now highly-placed sources in the censor board tell us that the whole The Dirty Picture experience would compel the CBFC to revise its policy regarding Adult feature films.

Pankaja Thakur the CEO of the CBFC said that a change in policy regarding the censorship of Adult films for telecast is around the corner:

In view of the court cases and the programme code that has to be followed by all TV programmes including feature films, CBFC would be forced to look at the whole process of cutting adult films to make it palatable for young viewing.

A popular film called The Dirty Picture was released in India with an A (18) certificate. It was massively cut by the film censors for a UA (PG) rating so that it could be shown on TV in daytime. However it seems that it was cut enough for the moralists and the daytime showing caused a bit of a stink in India.

Now sources from the Information & Broadcasting Ministry say that a decision has been taken to prevent all films with an A (adult) or a UA (parental guidance) certificate to be screened during daytime. A source said:

At a high-level meeting recently in the I & B Ministry it was decided that only films certified for universal exhibition would be screened during daytime on television. Films that are certified A or UA can only be screened post 11 pm.

But the TV and film industry are not happy. An industry explained that producers nowadays sell satellite rights of their films for huge amounts of money. A major part of a film's revenue comes from the television premiere. If the screening-time of films with an A and UA certificate on television is restricted to post 11 pm, satellite revenue would be accordingly reduced since the viewership would be seriously dented.

Many interested parties are now keenly waiting an official statement from the ministry.

Update: Separate TV Censorship

6th May 2012. See article from hindustantimes.com

The government is all set to introduce a separate rating system for films being telecast on private TV networks. The decision on the new rating system, which will co-exist with the one for films released in theatres, was taken after a meeting between officials of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and the information and broadcasting ministry.

Sources said CBFC chairperson Leela Samson has given in-principle approval for the idea, and a detailed set of guidelines will be framed soon.

Update: Still Arguing

14th May 2012. See article from timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Tense television broadcasters can breathe a sigh of relief. It seems the proposal to not screen Adults films on television may not be implemented at all. According to sources, there was a serious proposal to completely ban Adult films from television and thereby do away with the procedure of re-certification for television.

Television broadcasters went into a panic mode. A hush-hush high-level meeting between CBFC members and television broadcasters was called and the heated discussion lasted till late in the night.

The outcome, however, was in favour of the broadcasters. According to very reliable sources, the proposal to ban A films completely from satellite television has been revoked. Instead some very censorial guidelines regarding the telecast of A films on television are likely to be laid down.

The source said: The procedure of re-censoring 'A' films for television is likely to continue. However even when films are passed with a 'UA' certificate strigent rules would have to be applied. These include prominent scrolls declaring the relevance and full significance of the 'UA' certificate and warnings about cigarette smoking being injurious to health.

The CBFC, it is reliably learnt, would make its recommendations to the I&B ministry that the UA certification for the television broadcast of feature films be allowed to continue. But with several new additional censorship rules.