New Delhi, October 18
The government has no intention to regulate the content of television news channels but will create an independent autonomous body to look into all aspects of the broadcasting sector, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni said.

Speaking to Karan Thapar on his programme ‘Devil’s Advocate’ on CNN-IBN, Soni specifically said the intention of the government was not to regulate the news channels. “Believe it or not, we are not putting a regulator to monitor content. That is not the intention of the government at all. It would be an independent autonomous body, without government control, which will look at all the Ministry related issues,” the Minister said.

In reply to a question on why a regulator was being contemplated for television news channels and not for the print media, Soni said, “What we are talking about is a mechanism. You may call it a regulator. It is not a regulator in the context of content control.”

“There is a debate going on for a long time on what kind of a body should be there. I have not put a time frame to it. I don’t know what everybody will decide. We have been speaking to News Broadcasters Association and other bodies of broadcasters. They all have their own self-regulatory mechanisms,” said the Minister, adding that there was no intention of the ministry to play “the role of a regulator”.

“I have an absolutely open mind. I have clarified that I don’t want to regulate on behalf of the Ministry but through some other mechanism which is autonomous,” she said. In fact, many broadcasters have asked us to facilitate a nodal group of Ministers which can be accessed by them in times of emergency, the Minister said, in an obvious reference to the Mumbai terror attacks.

On the Ministry sending notices to television programmes like ‘Sach Ka Samna’ and ‘Pati, Patni Aur Who’, Soni said, “I don’t think government acts on its own (in such instances). I don’t see government wanting to do that at all. Let people decide what kind of infrastructure mechanism they want to have which balances finely the rights of freedom of speech and expression as well as sensitivities of society.”

To a specific question on the portrayal of Nehru-Edwina relationship in the English film ‘Indian Summer’, the Minister refused to give her personal views. She however, said foreign films wanting to shoot in India have to follow certain government rules and as far as the issue of suggesting changes in the script to the film’s producers, this was also done as per existing norms.

“We don’t really get into the film making aspect of Indian films. But films which are coming in from outside, they don’t get permission from Ministry of Home affairs for their visas etc, till the content has been looked into by the I&B ministry,” she said. “This is not my creation, this has been there for so many years,” she said referring to the relationship.

However she pointed out, “It’s not a question of changes. What I said right in the beginning, it’s an attempt to balance things. If we ask them to overlook some of the parts of the script or to eliminate some parts, it is a role also performed by the censor board.”

Soni, however, refused to be engaged into a discussion on her personal views on the content of the film. “I have no personal views. There are facts of history. I am not at all at any stage wanting to put my views on any subject on to the table,” the Minister added.

When asked whether she was protecting Nehru and Edwina from the truth of their relationship because of embarrassment caused by the facts, Soni said, “I am not going to get provoked by you.”