The Central Government today amended the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994 to provide for a statutory mechanism to redress citizens’ grievances and complaints against programmes of TV Channels. Ministry of Information & Broadcasting issued a notification amending the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994, thereby providing a statutory mechanism for redressal of complaints of citizens relating to content broadcast by television channels in accordance with the provisions of the Cable Television Network Act, 1995.

At present, there is an institutional mechanism by way of an Inter-Ministerial Committee to address grievances of citizens relating to violation of the programme/advertising codes under the rules. Similarly, various broadcasters have also developed their internal self-regulatory mechanism for addressing grievances.

However, the government said that a need was felt to lay down a statutory mechanism for strengthening the grievance redressal structure. Some broadcasters had also requested for giving legal recognition to their associations. The Supreme Court in an earlier order had also advised framing appropriate rules to formalize the complaint redressal mechanism.

So in order to provide for this statutory mechanism, which would be transparent and benefit the citizens, Cable Television Network Rules have been amended and at the same time, it has been decided that self-regulating bodies of broadcasters would be registered with the Central Government.

At present, there are over 900 television channels that have been granted permission by the ministry. Now all these channels are required to comply with the Programme and Advertising Code laid down under the Cable Television Network Rules. The new rules “paves the way for a strong institutional system for redressing grievances while placing accountability and responsibility on the broadcasters and their self-regulating bodies,” the statement issued by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting mentioned.