New Delhi, March 3
With over Rs 70 crore political
advertisement revenue at stake, broadcasters today met Chief Election
Commissioner T S Krishna Murthy and officials of the Information and
Broadcasting Ministry to seek a way out to circumvent the ban.
Apart from
taking up the issue of direct impact of the Cable Television Networks
(Regulation) Act, 1995, prohibiting political and religious advertisements, the
broadcasters, sources indicated, also wanted to know whether programmes
sponsored by political parties and other indirect appeals to the electorate
violated the Act.
The broadcasters met the Chief Election Commissioner and
later went to Information and Broadcasting Ministry Secretary Pavan Chopra, but
came out without any assurance.
While the EC said it was only following the
law as laid down in the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, and the
rules under it, Mr Chopra said they were obeying the directives issued by the
commission in view of the law.
The delegation included Indian Broadcasting
Foundation’s N. P. Navani, Mr Jawahar Goel of Zee TV and representatives of the
BBC, STAR TV and Discovery. Mr Navani said advertisements should be permitted on
the electronic media since it had a larger reach.
Asked whether broadcasters,
who met under the aegis of the Indian Broadcasting Federation, will take
recourse to legal option, Zee’s Additional Vice-Chairman Jawahar Goel told
reporters “we have many options”, but declined to comment further.
Earlier,
while announcing the election schedule, Mr Krishna Murthy had lambasted
politicians and senior journalists for making statements or writing about its
directives regarding elections, reiterating that the commission was only
implementing the provisions of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation)
Act.
Later, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar denied as
‘factually incorrect and unfair’ that he had at any stage misled the media on
the issue of the directives of the Election Commission with regard to political
advertisements.
In an official press note, the ministry reiterated that it
will continue to unreservedly abide by any directive which the commission may
issue from time to time.
According to Section 5 of the Act, “No person shall
transmit or re-transmit through a cable service any programme unless such
programme is in conformity with the prescribed programme code.” Section 6 says
“No person shall transmit or re-transmit through a cable service any
advertisement unless such advertisement is in conformity with the prescribed
advertisement code”.
Rule 7, which relates to the Advertising Code, says in
Clause 1 that advertising carried in the cable service shall be so designed as
to conform to the laws of country and should not offend morality, decency and
religious susceptibilities of the subscribers. Rule 7(3) says “No advertisement
shall be permitted, the objects whereof, are wholly or mainly of a religious or
political nature; advertisements must not be directed towards any religious or
political end”.
