IBF to form broadcasting council for non-news within three months

The Indian Broadcasting Foundation will form a redressal committee, called the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC), in an effort to establish self regulation on all non-news channels.

In a bid to establish self regulation amongst all non-news channels, including general entertainment channels and special interest channels, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation is all set to form a redressal committee, the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) within three months.

Similar to the News Broadcasting Standards Authority set up by News Broadcasters Association (NBA); BCCC will be headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court or the High Courts. The council will also have representatives from different walks of life, such as people from the broadcasting industry, members of NGOs representing women, children and other sections of society, and academicians.

The redressal mechanism will be a two-tier process. At the first level, viewers could communicate their grievances to the broadcaster or the channel. The second level will come into action, if the viewer gets an unsatisfactory response from the channel. The viewer can then complain to the BCCC.

About nine months ago, a joint task force was set up under the secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and IBF, in order to gather feedback from viewers from various segments of the society. This included DTH operators, members of Resident Welfare Associations, academicians and members of various NGOs.

These viewers were questioned about the nature of programmes they would like to watch on national television. Based on the feedback, a content code for the general entertainment channels and non-news channels has been formulated, which is currently in the process of being finalised.

Last month, the I&B Ministry had pulled up two entertainment channels (Colors and Imagine TV) and one music channel (SS Music) for violations of cable laws on content. While SS Music was banned for a week; the Ministry had issued show cause notices asking Colors and Imagine TV to push their respective shows, Bigg Boss 4 and Rakhi Ka Insaaf, from 9 pm to post 11 pm slots.

Currently, the IBF is headed by Uday Shankar, chief executive officer, STAR India as president. G Krishnan, executive director and chief executive officer, TV Today Network is the vice-president; while Sunil Lulla, managing director and chief executive officer, Times Television Network is the treasurer.