The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Government to set up a statutory mechanism for redressal of complaints against contents of private TV channels and radio stations and accord due publicity to the measures to enable citizens approach it with their grievances.
A bench, comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud, however refrained from commenting on the submission of News Broadcasters Association and Association of Radio Operators for India that self-regulatory mechanism has worked effectively for electronic media and radio channels.
Referring to section 22 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, the bench asked the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to constitute a body under the provision to deal with citizens’ complaints against television channels and radio stations regarding their alleged objectionable contents.
“We cannot ask them (Centre) to monitor the content of the channels. How can we do thatIJ You can approach us or the authority concerned after telecast or airing of objectionable contents only,” the bench observed at the outset when lawyers Prashant Bhushan and Kamini Jaiswal sought establishment of an independent regulatory authority to govern broadcast media.
“If something happens and you find them obnoxious, then we will certainly deal with them. Generally speaking, we cannot interfere with it and do content regulation,” it said.
It also said the issue pertained to the right of media enshrined under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution on freedom of speech and expression.
The court asked the Ministry to use the power under section 22 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act to set up the mechanism and rules to “formalise the complaint redressal mechanism” and accord “adequate publicity” to it so as to enable the public approach it with their complaints.
It asked the Centre to devise procedures with regard to the time limit for filing and deciding complaints and filing of appeals by the aggrived parties, among other things.
The bench disposed of the PIl filed by NGO ‘Mediawatch India’ seeking a regulatory body for the media on the ground that the Centre has failed to regulate the contents of the broadcast media.