NEW DELHI: For those who believe that the government is sure to shift the digitisation deadline for Phase II, there is a cautionary note. Information and Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari has made it clear that an extension of datelines can turn out more harmful.

Tewari, who took over as I&B minister two days before the deadline for the first phase of DAS in four metros, said he did not relent under pressure to extend the deadline.

?I was under tremendous amount of pressure to relax the deadline of phase I, but we decided that we would stay the course. I knew the pitfalls of reneging on deadline and the implications it has on the entire process,? Tewari revealed.

Tewari today said he would have preferred a social contract wherein all stakeholders came together to implement digitisation by taking each other into confidence rather than pushing it down the throat of consumers through a legal mandate.

Giving a keynote at Infocom?Assocham Mets Forum 2013, Tewari said a social contract would have been consensual way of implementing digitisation. He also said that digitisation was eventually between broadcasters, multi-system operators (MSOs), local cable operators (LCOs) and consumers.

?A social contract would have been possibly the most consensual way of taking this course forward. But the government in its wisdom thought it will do it in a legal compact by mandating it,? Tewari said.

He also stressed on the need to take all the stakeholders on board for smooth implementation of DAS (Digital Addressable System) going forward in the remaining phases.

?No stakeholder in this process should feel shortchanged and that?s a responsibility that the industry has to take upon itself so that all the stakeholders are on board and it?s a win-win situation for all,? Tewari stated.

?As we go into phase II, phase III and phase IV we would want the industry to walk that extra mile to get all their recalcitrant fellow travelers on board.?

He also said that the industry needs to move faster on the Broadcasters Audience Research Council (Barc) to replace the current television audience measurement system which is inadequate considering the size of the Indian television industry.
?I will not get into the debate whether a particular model is flawed or kosher because of a lack of alternative but I think it would worthwhile for the broadcasting industry to really move on the Barc. It?s unfair to the broadcasting industry and it?s unfair for the advertisers to have such a small sample which determines how thousands of crores of advertising revenue is spent,? he asserted.

Tewari also assured that the government would walk the extra mile should the industry fast-track the process of forming Barc.

?I don?t know why there is hesitation in the industry to move on it, but I can assure that if the industry decides to take the first step forward we will walk the extra mile to implement Barc provided the industry puts it in the front burner,? he averred.

In a veiled reference to news broadcasters, the minister said that the quality of discourse has to be in tune with the steps taken by the government to correct the flawed business model that exists. He said that the digitisation would in the long run help correct the flawed business model that is currently dependent on ad revenue.

?We are told that the reason why the discourse is so sensational because the ad pie is decided by those 8,000 meters. As we go on digitising, it is important that the stakeholders in media industry need to realise that because the discourse was sensational due to flawed revenue model. Now that there is an attempt to correct it , there has to be a certain amount of equanimity and certain amount of responsibility,? he elaborated.

?I do not say this because we have 2014 in mind or 2019. As a country we have gone through 1999 and 2004 and 2009, so we will go through the democratic cycle - it?s neither here nor there. If you look at India?s interest in the long-term this is an issue that needs to be flagged in a deliberation of this sort.?

Speaking on the contribution of the Film Industry, Tewari stated the Industry had grown on its own adopting innovation and creativity at every stage of development. The industry needed to be appreciated for the role played by it over a period of 100 years through the cinematic portrayal of moving images which had contributed to India?s soft power.

The endeavour of the Government was to initiate suitable measures so as to ensure the growth of India as a soft power in the centenary year of Indian Cinema. The Minister said he was confident that a lot of taxation issues would be resolved for the industry once there was a shift towards the GST regime.

On the Certification process, Tewari said the Ministry was mindful of the fact that the whole process needed to be examined in the light of recent events. In this context, the Ministry had set up a panel under Justice Mudgal to review the mandate and functioning of CBFC and recommend measures including statutory changes to enable CBFC to deal with contemporary requirements of certification and increased transparency / efficiency.

NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari told Parliament today that the government is considering the proposal by the Press Council of India for bringing the electronic media under its ambit.

Tewari said the Council had initially also wanted social media to be brought under its ambit, but later dropped this clause.

He said while web and social media has emerged as one of the important public communication channels, a lot of inflammatory and offensive information is also posted on the web and social media.

He said that the government supports social media for citizen centric and collaborative governance and has notified a framework comprising detailed guidelines for use of social media in the Government.

The Information Technology Act 2000 empowers the Government to block such malicious information hosted on Internet and social media sites which may play havoc with the lives of the people. The Act and Rules also provide safeguards to prevent misuse of such provisions.

NEW DELHI: In a bid to check the rising menace of paid news, the government is considering amending the Press and Registration of Books and Publications Act.

The recommendation was made by the Parliamentary Standing Committee which examined the amendment bill of 2011 in this regard.

A few instances related to electronic media have been brought to the notice of the government, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said.

Whenever such allegations/grievances/petitions regarding unethical practices and incessant misreporting are received, the government takes appropriate action under the Programme and Advertising Code prescribed under Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 and the Rules framed thereunder.

The issue of paid news has also been examined by the Press Council of India. It had submitted a report on paid news to the government for necessary action after a sub-committee studied the issue. Although the Government had initially released only a short summary of the report, it had later placed the report on the Council?s website following an RTI application.

PCI had recommended amendment to the Representation of the People?s Act 1951 to make incidence of paid news a punishable electoral malpractice and suggested that the PCI must be fully empowered to adjudicate the complaints of ?paid news? to give final judgment in the matter among others.

The report had also suggested measures to curb the menace of paid news like setting up of a special cell in the Election Commission for action on such complaints and self-regulation by media and awareness generation.

PCI had cautioned the media to refrain from publishing news masquerading as advertisement and vice-versa.

The Election Commission has also taken cognizance of this malaise and initiated steps to check incidence of election time paid news, which includes transparency in the money spent by candidates on advertising, a ban on exit and opinion polls until the last round is over, and similar other measures.

Meanwhile, the Ministry is in the process of making a reference to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to examine alleged monopolistic practices in the distribution segment of the broadcasting sector.

The Government made a reference to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on 16 May last year to examine the entire gamut of media ownership issues.

The Ministry has requested Trai to provide recommendations on specific issues of vertical integration within the various segments in the broadcasting sector as in the present scenario more and more broadcasting companies owning television channels are venturing into various distribution platforms, cable TV distribution, DTH, and IPTV etc. and similarly many companies owning distribution platforms are also entering into television broadcasting.

Trai has also been asked to look into the issue of horizontal integration wherein companies have controls/ownerships across print, TV and radio. The broadcast sector?s recommendations are awaited.

NEW DELHI: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has proposed to earmark Rs one billion for development of community radio stations in the Twelfth Five Year Plan, of which Rs 900 million will be for grants or aid to help the CRS movement in the country.

Giving this information at the Third Community Radio Sammellan here, I&B Minister Manish Tewari said only Rs 100 million had been set aside for capacity building.

Tewari also said the proposal was that at least 500 more community radio stations should become operational during the Twelfth Plan.

Meanwhile, he said the Ministry had taken the initiative to promote the streamlining and simplification of Community Radio empanelment through Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) thereby ensuring that the empanelled stations got a fair share of Government advertisements. DAVP had so far allocated around Rs 60 million in commercial advertisements to CRS.

The Minister was speaking at the valedictory function of the Sammellan, at which he also gave away awards in five different categories to different CRS all over the country.

Later talking to the media, the Minister admitted that while the Government was willing to permit CRS to broadcast news bulletins of All India Radio as was being done in the Third Phase of FM expansion, this would need Cabinet approval.

At the outset, he said that permitting CRS to make their own news bulletins would create other difficulties. He gave the example of non-news television channels which he said managed to find different ways of giving news and the difference between the general entertainment channels and news channels was getting blurred.

He said that the CRS movement was very important in India today. While the Government had its organs for conveying its messages and programmes to the people, CRS could provide a two-way interaction by conveying what the people wanted. He said there was growing impatience and intolerance and people wanted to find a voice.

He said CRS could also highlight local issues that the government could then pay attention to. This effort has to be led by the community and not by the government, he added.

For his part, he said the Ministry had adopted a holistic approach to CRS. It wanted to work out a system to give assistance to new CRS to come up. He also wanted the CRS to draw up a code of ethics for themselves. The Ministry was also working on its own relationship with CRS.

The Minister also elaborated on the efforts being made by the Ministry in coordinating relevant issues with the Communications & Information Technology Ministry with regard to better frequency allocation plan for the CRSs.

He said it was likely that the Department of Telecom would announce the spectrum waiver decision shortly.

The need to facilitate a vibrant business model was in the offing to ensure the sustainability of the movement.

Earlier Joint Secretary (Broadcasting) Supriya Sahu said the Ministry was very keen on promoting CRS and gave example of having cleared 53 CRS proposals in just 24 hours soon after Tewari had become Minister. She stressed the need for deep involvement of the community if the movement had to grow. She wanted the stakeholders to draw up a Charter for themselves to serve as a Code of Ethics.