New Delhi : Information and Broadcasting Ministry’s Electronic Media Monitoring Centre has recorded 13,000 violations of the regulations by Indian television in 2013-14.
Guntur-based activist Edara Gopi Chand used the RTI Act to force EMMC to disclose regulatory violations by TV channels. Turns out that the channels are flouting rules by distracting viewers with scrolling and part screen advertisements.
EMMC data shows that there were 2,965 cases of ads related to liquor and tobacco products; 1245 misleading ads and about 5,566 part-screen ads during 2013-14. Misleading ads included promotion of goods that claimed miraculous powers such as kavachas, potions and creams. EMMC also says that about 37% of the violations in 2014 were related to vulgarity and obscenity.
“Merely publishing statistics of violations is meaningless unless the names of the violating channels and the nature or gravity of each of these violations is revealed. It is an open secret that the I&B Ministry sits on these reports without taking any action. It issues occasional ‘advisories’ to which no channel pays heed,” said Edara Gopi Chand, an activist with Media-Watch India.
The Telecom Authority of India (TRAI) recently released a list of 140 channels that violated the 12-minute ad cap rule. The list includes 39 news and 101 non-news channels; with Zee Media Corporation’s 24 TAAS showing over 12 minutes of advertisements per hour.
