| |
Information and Broadcasting minister Ambika Soni has mentioned that government will not be intervening in the regulation of content over television channels. She added that an autonomous body will be formed for monitoring the same.
"Believe it or not, we are not putting a regulator to monitor content, which is not the intention of the government at all. It would be an independent autonomous body, without government control, which will look at all the ministry related issues," she said speaking to a TV news channel.
When asked about the need for a regulator for television news channels, she said, "What we are talking about is a mechanism. You may call it a regulator. It is not a regulator in the context of content control. There is a debate going on for a long time on what kind of a body should be there. I have not put a time frame to it (debate). I don't know what everybody will decide. We have been speaking to News Broadcasters Association and other bodies of broadcasters. They all have their own self- regulatory mechanisms."
Soni added that she did not want the ministry "to play the role of a regulator. I have an absolutely open mind. I have clarified that I don't want to regulate on behalf of the ministry but through some other mechanism which is autonomous. In fact the various broadcasters' bodies have asked us to facilitate a nodal group of ministers which can be accessed by them in times of emergency(like Mumbai attacks)".
