NEW DELHI, Mar 20: The New BJP-led coalition government will undertake a complete review of the Prasar Bharati Act and functioning of the Broadcasting Corporation of India (BCI).In an interview with The Financial Express immediately after assuming office on Friday, information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj said she will hold a meeting with BCI chairman Nikhil Chakravarty in the next two-three days to discuss key issues relating to the Prasar Bharati Act.
Swaraj said the BJP government is firm on capping foreign equity limit at 20 per cent in electronic media. She said the government will also impose cross-media/cross-service restrictions on the private broadcasters and broadcasters will have to uplink from within the country.
The government is expected to review the Prasar Bharati Amendment Ordinance, 1997 in which the IK Gujral government dropped the clause regarding appointment of a committee of MPs to oversee the functioning of BCI and also removed age limit for boardmembers.
Swaraj said the BJP and its allies are not against the basic idea of granting autonomy to electronic media and described Prasar Bharati as "LK Advani's baby". "But now, I have to analyse and assess the full impact of the working of the corporation", she said. Significantly, there is speculations that BJP is in favour of letting the current ordinance lapse in May and then issue a fresh ordinance in which the party will introduce changes to make the corporation answerable to the Parliament.
Of the changes that are currently been anticipated are inclusion of the MP's committee to which the corporation will be answerable, which was earlier dropped by the ordinance.
On Broadcasting Bill, Swaraj, who was also a member of the joint parliamentary committee, said that the BJP and its alliance partners are committed to follow the National Agenda as the guiding principles.On the timing of the Bill, Swaraj said it will get a top priority since the entire country is waiting for a comprehensive broadcastinglaw.
She also said that the JPC has already collected all the evidences regarding the bill and what is left of it is a comprehensive clause by clause discussion. The government is also likely to look into the plans of a number of private channels to encrypt their signals into digital mode. The cable operators have already raised a major hue and cry regarding this move of the private channels and alleged that this may be a ploy to eliminate them.
Media experts have also felt that the government needs to be careful while dealing with the subject of digital encryption. They explained that the cable operators will have to install digital integrated receiver decoders (DGIRDs) to receive the encrypted signals, which can be easily upgraded for direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
