SPEECHES / STATEMENTS 

Speech of Shri P.R. Dasmunsi, Hon'ble Minister of Information & Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs at SIMCON-XXVI

September 19, 2007

I am extremely happy to welcome you all again to this important Conference, being held after two years. I am sure that the two-year period must have given ample time to the State Governments and Union Territories to initiate steps for the implementation of the decisions taken at the last SIMCON conference held in April 2005.

This Conference provides us all an opportunity to understand each others points of views on the issues that impinge upon the information and entertainment industry of our country. It also enables us to determine our line of action for taking steps to protect the interests of the consumer – the common man. The presence here of a large number of Information Ministers from the States as well as the Union Territories, amply demonstrates the willingness of us all to take effective and constructive steps in dealing with the menace of piracy, implementation of CAS, regulation of broadcasting media, creating an environment to catalyze the healthy growth of this sector and framing laws to create an enabling framework to achieve this end - besides tackling other issues.

Taking cognizance of the fact that the implementation of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, had not been satisfactory due to lack of knowledge or mechanism to enforce the same, the last SIMCON conference had recommended that an enforcement mechanism be constituted to implement the provisions of the said Act. In pursuance of that decision, a “Monitoring Committee for the Programmes and Advertisements Telecast by TV Channels” was proposed to be constituted at the State, district and local levels to oversee the implementation of the Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act. I am sure this step would have yielded the desired results.

I want to underline here that the powers conferred upon the Authorized Officers have to be exercised with due care and caution. It must be ensured that the decisions taken by these officers should strictly be in conformity with the provisions of the Act so that they can withstand any amount of judicial scrutiny. No cable operator should feel that he or she is being targeted arbitrarily without any justifiable grounds. This is particularly imperative because the Act has been given teeth by including imprisonment for a term that may extend upto two years, or a fine up to one thousand rupees, or both. Further, for subsequent offences, the prison term may extend to five years, or with a fine up to five thousand rupees, or both. Therefore exercising a great deal of caution is the watchword for all Authorized Officers.

At present, the entire electronic media is guided by the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, which includes the programme code and the advertising code. During the recent times, we have received several directions from the Court that the downlinking and uplinking guidelines did not have legislative backing, whereby we were compelled to enact the legislation pertaining to the Sports Signals Mandatory Sharing Rights, in public interest.

The Legislature, Executive, Judiciary and a free and Independent media are the corner stones of our matured democracy. There is not even a remotest thinking in the Government to interfere with the programming or the news or the editorial desk of any newspaper or electronic channel. The UPA Government is committed to keep the Indian media free from all interferences from the political angle. Since the last 14 years several efforts have been made to bring out a set of comprehensive broadcasting regulations, even when the number of channels were much much less than today, but somehow due to dissolution of Parliament and sometimes due to pressure of some interested circles, the bill could not see the light of the day. However, any misuse of the due rights of the electronic media would be taken cognizance by the regulatory authority as and when it is formed and uptill then by the inter-ministerial Committee, which will decide on the violations of the Cable Television Networks (Regulations) Act, 1995.

In a democracy, of course, the ultimate choice is left to the people but a democratic governance must ensure that the public has a wider choice via fair competition of the media in a level playing field. It is in this context, that the issue of cross media ownership restrictions need to be addressed. Even our modest attempt for the preparation of the draft broadcasting related bill, evoked a lot of hue and cry and an impression that the rights and freedom of the media were being curtailed. You would definitely appreciate that the telecom industry which has a wider reach in every nook and corner of the country and a lot of competitors, but still nobody has questioned the composition of TRAI, which has been doing a lot for the people by trying to arrange an efficient and cost-effective delivery mechanism.

The contents of the draft bill had been discussed time and again by my Ministry officials with the stakeholders in a transparent manner and finally I took the meeting of the stakeholders on 7th September, 2007. It was once again reiterated that the Government does not wish to dictate terms vis-a-viz functioning of any channel but is striving to develop the system where accountability and responsibility could be adhered to in the true sprit of the programme code and advertisement code. After my interaction with the media and other stakeholders I gathered the following:

a. Major commercial television companies be it news or entertainment, are against any kind of regulation. A few of them desire a self-regulatory mechanism.

b. The overwhelming majority are unanimous, viz-a-viz. view of the consumers represented by their Consumers Councils, that a responsible and accountable Government should have a regulatory mechanism in place to protect the interests of the viewers as well as the society.

c. Unanimous view of the Cable Operators is for a regulation. I shall also be writing to the respective Chief Ministers of States to ascertain their views. Thereafter, I shall be appraising the factual position to the Hon’ble Prime Minister for his guidance.

I would like to make it abundantly clear that a free society does not mean that there could be a scenario of “go as you like” and the people have no choice but to digest it or absorb it. Though the Government of the day, should not behave as the custodian or authority to dictate the electronic media, but it should be equally be sensitive to the cause of society, dignity of women, interest of children and our secular amity, to be able to justify our accountability to the nation through a system. The Government should not interpret and decide on their political desire whether a thing is right or wrong. My whole endeavour has been to see that a transparent regulatory mechanism is set up which is acceptable to the people and the stakeholders.

To speed up the spread of FM Radio, a new policy of expansion of FM was notified in July, 2005 under which a total of 337 channels in 91 cities were put up for bid. At present, permission has been granted for operationalisation of 266 channels including the 21 operationalised under the old (1999) scheme and out of this, a total of 116 channels are in operation. The remaining are expected to be operationalised by the end of the current financial year. The Government has recently invited bids for allotment of 97 channels in 48 cities and also has plans for further expansion of the private FM radio stations in future.

I would like to state in this regard that there has been a great demand for allowing news and current affairs in the private FM channels from the existing FM broadcasters. The Government did not allow news and current affairs since there is no effective and established system to monitor the FM stations. We do not straightaway oppose the broadcast of news and current affairs in the FM Radio but we may have to find a selective monitoring mechanism. The matter is presently under consideration and we would like to have the views of the State Governments also on this particular issue.

The Community Radio policy, under which 26 stations of educational institutions are working has further been liberalized in December 2006 and it has been decided to grant permission for setting up community radio stations to ‘Non-profit’ organizations viz. Civil Society and Voluntary organizations, State Agricultural Universities, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Institutions, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, Registered Societies etc. It is an achievement of the UPA Government. The Government has so far received 95 applications under the new guidelines and permission has been granted to five organizations.

Keeping in view the potential of the medium as an effective tool for empowerment of the community, it has been decided to give wide publicity to the new policy. We hope the State Governments would come forward to jointly organize Workshops/Seminars at the State and regional levels to popularize the scheme in various parts of the country. The Ministry has already taken up the matter with the State Governments.

As for the Conditional Access Scheme (CAS), it was implemented with effect from December 31, 2006, as per the Delhi High Court’s directive. It was introduced in parts of the three Metros of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata and in the entire Chennai Metropolitan area as per the Madras High Court’s verdict. The feedback received so far indicates that the experiment has been partially successful. We have nevertheless requested TRAI to carry out a detailed evaluation on its feasibility before deciding to extend it further to other parts of the country.

I would also like to draw your attention to some of the issues concerning the film industry. As we all know India has a very robust film industry. Each year we produce about a thousand feature films which are exhibited in different parts of the country. While the entertainment tax on the film industry has gradually been reduced from seventy percent to an average of about fifty percent, we have been recommending further reduction to twenty five to thirty percent. This will give a boost to the exhibition sector and reduction of ticket rates would encourage more viewer ship.

As a measure to curb piracy and also to expand the exhibition sector itself, growth of digital exhibition would be helpful. Distribution of cinema in digital formats makes it difficult for pirates to make illegal copies of the film. The digital exhibition equipments would also be priced lower than projectors of film reels. It also helps as producers and exhibitors save on the high cost of making prints for distribution across the country as digital distribution is far cheaper. To encourage new theaters being established the licensing process and clearances required from different authorities should be streamlined. However, different States have different exhibition laws some of which have not kept pace with the changing environment and technology. These would need revision for encouraging private sector participation in film exhibition and theatres.

In order to discourage piracy, I would request the State Governments to explore the possibility of creation of special cells/ wings under the State police for enforcement of the Copyright Act and tackling piracy and to find out the success story of Tamil Nadu Act in this regard. It is the State Governments which will have to adopt strict mechanisms to prevent piracy. Central Government laws alone cannot help since cinema exhibition is a matter within the State and the entire marketing initiative is done in the States.

The Government of India has been actively promoting India as a film shooting destination. India has a specific advantage in terms of beautiful locations, advanced studios, trained manpower and increasingly sophisticated post production facilities. I request the State Governments to facilitate a single window clearance system for film shootings specifically for foreign film shooting. Cooperation would be needed among the state law & order authorities, tourism authorities, and hospitality sector for facilitation of local and foreign crews.

Dear friends, in order to make the provisions contained under the Press and Registration of Books (PRB) Act, 1867, more in keeping with the current scenario and times, we are proposing to make certain amendments to make the provisions contained in the Act relevant to the current economic and technological scenario.

The State Government and Union Government together should take the responsibility to convey to the people the welfare schemes and programmes of the Government of India and the State Governments. The objective assessment of such programmes free from any political motive should reach to the masses for their benefit only, like the Public Distribution System, Mid-Day Meal Scheme and several anti-poverty programmes for the people, etc. People should have a full knowledge of the Government policies and programmes made for them, and the media is probably the only source of information for the poor people. It is the obligation of every State Government to keep the people informed and updated otherwise their information Department and Information Ministry shall be meaningless. Finally, I feel, the State Government’s Information Desk should strengthen the message of secular amity, integration against divisive forces, violence, communalism and terrorist acts.

Finally, I want to thank you all for participating in this Conference and making it a grand success. I am sure the deliberations of this august gathering will help in evolving guidelines that would go a long way in streamlining our information dissemination network.

Finally, I appeal you to celebrate 2nd October 2007 through a special programme highlighting the UNO’s resolution to the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi from capital, urban cities to the villages.

Thank you.