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NEW
DELHI: Irked by the fact that television rating points (TRP
ratings) cover only some urban centres in the country, Information
and Broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi is convening
a meeting in Mumbai next week to discuss the control that
such ratings have on the content of TV programmes.
He
said that the Tam meters were provided to viewers only in
some urban areas minus Jammu and Kashmir and the north-east,
despite the fact that the majority of viewers lived in rural
India.
The
minister said this while speaking at a function to formally
launch five news channels run by the privately-owned STV Enterprises.
The
channels – UP News, Haryana News, JK News, Himachal News
and Goa News – were launched at a gathering held on 30
August.
The
function was attended by railway minister Lallu Prasad, company
affairs minister P C Gupta, Haryana chief minister Bhupendra
Singh Hooda, Himachal Pradesh chief minister Veerbhadra Singh,
former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah, members
of Parliament Amar Singh, Naveen Jindal and Shantaram L Naik.
Referring
to the proposed Broadcast Regulation Services Bill, Dasmunsi
said there was no TV network in the world which was not regulated,
and it would have been ideal if the industry had itself been
able to do this. The government is doing it because the channels
failed to have any self-regulation mechanism.
He
said it was not merely the duty of the public broadcaster
Doordarshan to show ‘real news’. All the channels
licensed to show news were spending most of the time showing
entertainment, he said, noting that no other country had given
media the kind of freedom it enjoyed in India.
Referring
to programmes based on crime and superstition, he said the
repeated telecast of incidents like the one in Bhagalpur or
the Shilp Shetty kiss had an adverse effect on society even
if it benefited the channels in terms of TRP ratings.
He
said the so-called ‘Breaking News’ had turned into
breaking the wisdom of even hardworking diligent journalists.
He
was critical of one channel which held a programme every morning
to forecast what would happen in Parliament that day. ‘This
is not fair’, he said.
Referring
to the fairness and the public broadcaster, Dasmunsi said
Doordarshan had telecast a programme on 15 August showing
every prime minister since independence – irrespective
of political party – unfurling the National Tricolour
from the Ramparts of Red Fort.
Speaking
on the occasion, Prasad regretted that views were often passed
off as news by TV channels. He also said that rural India
is generally ignored by news channels. He exhorted the electronic
media to work towards uniting the nation.
Abdullah
said Jammu and Kashmir managed to get just a few minutes on
news channels. Even that was mostly devoted to the ruling
party. So, he expressed the hope that JK News would cover
the state fully. While emphasizing that news channels should
highlight the problems of the people without being too negative,
he said it was necessary to have some light moments even on
dreary news channels. He referred to the power of the media
in shaping things, particularly during election time.
Earlier,
STV Enterprises chairman J K Jain said the effort would be
to introduce 33 regional news channels in next 18 months,
including one national news channel.
The
UP, Haryana and Goa channels are 24-hour free-to-air news
and current affairs channels. The Group’s flagship Punjabi
news channel Punjab Today has completed five years of operation.
Jain,
who is also editor-in chief of the channels, said that while
the UP and Haryana channels will be in Hindi, the Goa channel
will have news bulletins in Konkani and English. Punjab Today
is being converted into a three-in-one channel from today,
with an eight-hour news window on Punjab, Himachal Pradesh
and J and K. Both Himachal News and JK News will run as separate
channels after some time. He was negotiating with Prasar Bharati
for carrying the UP and Haryana channels on the DD Direct
DTH network.
Meanwhile,
a teleport has already been made operational in South Delhi
and four OB vans are initially being set up to start live
news coverage.
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