⇒The Central Government amended the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994, thereby providing a statutory mechanism for redressal of grievances/complaints of citizens relating to content broadcast by television channels in accordance with the provisions of the Cable Television Network Act, 1995.
The Central Government had issued a notification in this regard on 17 June 2021.
Why were the CTN rules amended?
At present, there is an institutional mechanism by way of an Inter-Ministerial Committee to address grievances of citizens relating to violation of the Programme/Advertising Codes under the Rules. However, a need was felt to lay down a statutory mechanism for strengthening the grievance redressal structure.
The Hon’ble Supreme Court in its order in WP(C) No.387 of 2000 in the matter of “Common Cause Vs Union of India & Others” while expressing satisfaction over the existing mechanism of grievance redressal set up by the Central Government, had advised to frame appropriate rules to formalize the complaint redressal mechanism.
In view of the above background:
The Cable Television Network Rules have been amended to provide for this statutory mechanism, which would be transparent and benefit the citizens. At the same time, self-regulating bodies of broadcasters would be registered with the Central Government.
At present there are over 900 television channels which have been granted permission by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.