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Cable operators protest, no transmission for next 3 days

There might be a black out for cable television viewers in Delhi from midnight on Monday as cable operators will shut down transmission of all channels for three days in protest against the government's 'lopsided' amendments to the Cable Television Networks Act.

The government had barred cable operators from showing pirated films and enforced the Programme and Advertising Code on all channels, including the free-to-air ones.

Stating that the amendments hold cable operators responsible for deviations from the programme and advertising code laid down by the government, in the programmes being relayed by satellite broadcasters, the Cable TV Operators United Front warned that the agitation would be 'continued, intensified and carried out in all towns and cities in the country' if their concerns were not addressed.

They said the entire spectrum of cable operators in Delhi, including Hathway Datacom, Spectranet and all independent cable operators have got together to launch the agitation.

Fearing harassment from local authorities, which have been empowered to act through the recent amendments, the agitated cable operators have demanded among other things that the police should not be allowed to interfere in the cable network business as it would lead to 'further corruption'.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley appealed to the agitated cable operators to call off their agitation saying the amended Act would not hurt any operator's 'legitimate' business.

Jaitley told reporters the fears expressed by the operators about harassment by authorities under the amended Act were 'purely imaginary' and said the prime responsibility for enforcing the programme and advertisement codes was that of the channels' and not operators'.

Asserting that one cannot agitate on 'non-existent and imaginary fears', he said the government would notify any channel if it was found to be violating codes regarding obscenity and advertisements promoting alcohol, cigarettes and tobacco. The cable operators would be informed about any such violation.

"Any channel violating advertising and broadcasting code will not be shown by operators. We will notify the channel rather than leave it to individual operators," he said. "The cable operators will have to discipline themselves as far as showing pirated films was concerned. Applying programme codes across the board will discipline the channels," he added.

Jaitley said the cable law has been in force since 1995 and the only change was that the programme and advertising codes now applied to free-to-air channels.

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