New Delhi: The government approves uplinking of 36 TV channels to be uplinked from India and downlinked abroad under the uplinking guidelines of Indian government.
TV channels operating in India, which have been uplinked but are meant only for foreign viewership, are not required to comply with the programme and advertisement code of India.
The channels concerned will be required to ensure compliance of the rules and regulations of the target country for which content is being produced and uplinked, said Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore in a written reply to Lokshabha.
Rathore, however, said that the uplinked content should not contain anything which is against the sovereignty, integrity and national security of India as well as its relations with friendly countries.
For monitoring purposes, these channels will be required to preserve the recordings of proceedings for at least six months, he said.
The government also has withdrawn permission to four TV channels as security clearance was either denied or taken away.
As per provisions of ‘Uplinking and Downlinking guidelines’, security clearance to the applicant company, its directors and key applicants is a pre-requisite for running TV channels.
“Accordingly, the Government has withdrawn permissions to four TV channels namely 7 SEA, Mahuaa News UP, ABC News and Voice of Nation, due to denial/withdrawal of security clearance by Government of India,” Rathore said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.
He also added that as per policy guidelines for Private FM Radio Phase III, security clearance is a part of eligibility criterion. “Security clearance to certain companies was withdrawn by Government of India. However, the matter is sub-judice,” he said.
In reply to another question, Rathore said Prasar Bharati had informed that an amount of Rs 23.11 crore has been spent in financial year 2014-15 on setting up of DD Kisan channel.
