The Bangladesh government has clamped down on eight Indian popular satellite pay channels and five FTA channels to "resist the adverse impact of alien culture on religious and social values."

According to the Bangladeshi newspaper Daily Star, the decision to ban HBO, Star Movies, MTV, Channel V, AXN, MGM and Hallmark, was taken at a joint meeting of different TV channels, cable ops and channel distributors with officials of the ministry of information.

The newspaper, quoting official press releases, said that the meeting ‘unanimously decided‘ to shut out the channels until further orders. The clampdown on Star Movies, Star World and HBO is being implemented despite objections by the channel distributors, reports say. Cable ops also agreed to stop telecasting five ‘free-to-air‘ channels - RAI TV, PTP, TVE, MTV and SNTV, out of respect to "the socio-cultural and religious sentiment" of the people, the handout added.

The cable operators, bowing to government diktat, also promised not to show VCD movies, while ATN Bangla too toed the line by assuring that it would not telecast ‘objectionable foreign films‘ in future.

Information Minister Tariqul Islam chaired the meeting, media reports say. Reports say the information minister thanked the satellite operators and distributors for expressing their solidarity with people‘s sentiments "spontaneously" by closing down "harmful" satellite channels. He has been quoted as saying that, if necessary, more channels will be closed down.

That the Rajya Sabha (Indian Parliament‘s Upper House) could not take up the Cable TV Networks Regulations Amendment Bill on 17 May (last Friday), the last day before Parliament was adjourned sine die, is old news.
But not many know how hectic behind-the-scenes confabulations between some senior ministers in the government and politicians from the Opposition saw to it that the discussion on the bill, the implementation of which will facilitate the implementation of conditional access system (CAS) in cable homes, was not accorded priority.

After the Lok Sabha (Lower House) passed by voice vote the amendments to the CATV Act on CAS last Wednesday, it was expected information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj would manage to get the Bill passed in the Rajya Sabha too. But that was not to be and the bill now has to either wait for the monsoon session of Parliament or, if the government so desires, then the President can promulgate an Ordinance (an executive order) making introduction of CAS a necessity in a phased manner.

That a senior minister in the government spoke to senior MPs of the Rajya Sabha is confirmed. But when indiantelevision.com attempted to get in touch with Swaraj for her version, we were told over the weekend that she was busy. On Monday her office informed us that that she, along with a delegation of people from the world of entertainment, had already left for the Cannes Film Festival.