The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) has approved a self regulatory guidelines and complaints redressal mechanism” for all non news channels, including general entertainment, children, special interest channels.

In a release after its board of directors meeting on Monday, IBF said, “The Guidelines will usher in an efficient, transparent and independent self regulatory mechanism that will provide the channels with certain guiding principles for content programming.” It pitched for a redressal mechanism for bona fide complaints from viewers as also underlining that at the same time programming creativity should not be hampered. The move is intended to prevent ad hoc intervention from various statutory authorities, and pressure groups”

This will be a two tier mechanism where the viewer will first complain to the broadcaster or the channel and in case of no or dissatisfactory response, follow up with the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) at the industry level. BCCC will have thirteen members headed by former chief justice of Delhi high court, A P Shah. The other members will include, four each non-broadcasters and broadcasters and as many from national statutory commissions.

The draft of the guidelines has adopted suitable modifications to the ministry of information and broadcasting self regulation guidelines for broadcasting sector draft version of 2008 after a comprehensive consultative process by stakeholders across the government, civil society, NGO’s and industry.

“These self regulation guidelines , content code and certification rules sets out principles, guidelines and ethical practices which shall guide the Broadcasting Service Provider (BSP) in offering their programming services in India so as to conform to the Programme Code prescribed under the Cable Television Networks (regulations) Act 1995, irrespective of the medium/platform used for broadcasting of the programme.”, says the release.

The IBF’s Board took the decision to implement the self regulatory guidelines in view of the pendency of disposal of the public interest litigation in the Supreme Court and the Delhi high court and the ad hoc arbitrary notices being issued to channels under the programming code.

An IBF delegation will shortly meet the I & B minister to inform her about the implementation of the Self Regulatory Guidelines and Complaints Redressal Mechanism.

“In view of the sensitivities involved in the non-news content segment and after due consideration of the observations made by various judicial forums as well as to bring non-IBF members within the ambit of self regulation, IBF recommends that the Self-regulatory content guidelines be notified immediately for all non-news channels under the Cable Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 replacing the present programme code. The notification of self-regulatory content code should be delinked from the broadcast bill in the interest of all the stakeholders of the broadcasting sector especially the viewer.”

IBF has expressed hope that the move will ensure compliance by majority of channels. However, the IBF has also cautioned that the proliferation of unregulated content provided by local cable operators masquerading as channels showing movies and other programmes will not be regulated by these guidelines. “In most cases, the movies shown are pirated and uncensored. These operators also put their scrolls on their channel and run their own advertisements. Since the content of such channels cannot be monitored by the IBF, the government must immediately institute a licensing system for continued operation of these channels to avoid any viewer complaints to the IBF in this regard.”