Broadcasting Bill will not be diluted: Dasmunsi

New Delhi, July 15 (UNI) Minister for Information and Broadcasting Priyaranjan Das Munsi today categorically said the proposed Broadcasting Services Bill will not be diluted, but sought to assure the nation that it will be the most media-friendly legislation.

''The Bill will neither be diluted nor polluted,'' he told reporters after inaugurating the Indian Languages Newspapers Association (ILNA) Annual General Meeting here.

The legislation is likely to be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament, beginning July 24.

Mr Dasmunsi said all the rumours about the draconian nature of the broadcast legislation were baseless and out of context.

''The UPA government has no intention of suppressing the freedom of the media and the press,'' he added.

In fact, the Minister said, the Bill was aimed at promoting the growth of the Indian media in the face of increasing challenges from foreign TV channels.

Earlier, addressing ILNA meeting, he said ''it was premature to talk about the shape of an unborn child''. When the Bill comes out, it will be most progressive and media-friendly in the world.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has been maintaining that there was nothing new in the Bill and the new measures the media was crying about were already there under the existing Acts.

''What we have done is just to put together various Acts under one comprehensive Bill. So all the hue and cry made by broadcasters was not because of the freedom of the press being affected but because the Bill provides for a cap on crossmedia ownership,'' say officials of the Ministry.

The bill proposes to cap cross media ownership at 20 per cent and restructure the sharholding pattern. That would mean that a broadcaster cannot have more than 20 per cent stake in another broadcasting network, a cable network or DTH or a radio network.

Just like FM radio operators, television networks too will not be allowed to own more than 15 per cent of the total number of channels. That comes to 30 at the maximum as there are a total number of around 200 channels registered in India.

The Bill also limits the number of subscribers for cable and service providers to a maximum of 15 per cent.

Representatives of the broadcasting industry feel while anti-monopoly measures were welcome, the provisions in the bill will limit business options for players in the field which was not good for the health of the industry.

Media tycoons in their latest meeting with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry told the government that they were for a uniform regulator in the broadcasting sector but firmly opposed move to put restrictions on cross-media and inter-media ownership, saying the Indian media is ''too nascent to warrant'' any ownership shackling.

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