I&B Ministry
No sex please! We’re Indians
NEW DELHI: It’s not always right to carry out surveys. Especially if it pertains to sex and sexual preferences of Indians.
The Delhi High Court today issued notices to leading weeklies India Today and Outlook for allegedly publishing obscene articles and sex surveys in their recent editions, reports Press Trust of India (PTI).
A division bench of Justices Vijender Jain and Rekha Sharma also issued notices to the information and broadcasting ministry and the Press Council of India asking them to file their replies by 7 December when the next hearing is scheduled.
A public interest litigation filed by one Supriya Aggrawal, through advocate Varun Goswami, alleged that the magazines had been corrupting the the minds of youngsters.
The case comes at a time when the I&B ministry has said that it has formed a 30-member panel, comprising representatives from the industry, activists and the government, to look into issues relating to content and advertising on TV, radio and films.
It is worth noting that I&B secretary SK Arora said today on the sidelines of the first India TV Summit in Mumbai today, organised by Indiantelevision.com and the Hong Kong-based Media Partners Asia, that print has been left out of the ambit of this newly-formed panel as it’s seen the medium already has certian guidelines relating to content in newspapers and magazines.
MUMBAI: When the numbers go silent, the noise on screen gets a little harder to measure. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has extended the suspension of television rating data for news channels, directing Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) to withhold TRPs for another four weeks. The latest order, issued on March 31, 2026, builds on an earlier directive from March 6 that had paused ratings for a month. The ministry has clarified that the blackout will continue for four weeks or until further instructions are issued whichever comes earlier keeping the industry in a prolonged state of data drought.
The reasoning, officials suggest, lies far beyond domestic screens. With geopolitical tensions in West Asia continuing to escalate, the government has flagged concerns over how such developments could influence news consumption and presentation. The move is aimed at curbing excessive sensationalism and speculative coverage during what it describes as a sensitive global moment.
For the broadcast ecosystem, the absence of Television Rating Points (TRPs) is more than symbolic, it removes the industry’s primary scorecard. Ratings dictate advertising flows, shape editorial strategies and fuel the competitive pecking order among news channels. Without them, broadcasters are effectively operating without a public performance benchmark.
The timing only adds to the complexity. Amid a high-intensity global news cycle, channels must now navigate audience engagement without the weekly feedback loop that typically drives programming decisions. Advertisers, too, are left recalibrating, leaning on proxies such as brand strength, reach and distribution instead of hard viewership data.
While framed as a temporary regulatory intervention tied to maintaining public order, the extended suspension underscores a broader unease about the tone and direction of news coverage. For now, the ratings race is on pause but the battle for attention continues, just without a scoreboard.
