Government informed Parliament about 73 complaints against obscene advertisements on TV channels

The government has told Parliament that regulatory bodies have received 73 complaints against obscene and vulgar advertisements on private television channels in the last three years. In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L. Murugan said that the complaints were resolved "appropriately" by a three-tier complaint redressal system.

Murugan said that the mechanism established under the Cable Television Networks (Amendment) Rules includes self-regulation by broadcasters, self-regulation by self-regulatory bodies of broadcasters, and a monitoring system of the Central Government.

The minister said wherever violations of the advertising code are found, appropriate action is taken by issuing "advice, warning, 'apology order' and off-air order".

To another question, Murugan said OTT platforms need to follow the code of conduct under Part III of the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

"These codes are self-regulatory in nature," the Minister said. Murugan said under these codes of conduct, publishers will not have to broadcast any content that is prohibited by law and will have to do age-based self-classification of content into five categories based on the general guidelines given in the rules.

The guidelines provide that such self-classification is to be done keeping in mind the context of the period depicted in such content and the current standards of the country and people to whom such contents pertain.

He said that the guidelines provide that while such self-classification is done, the context of the period depicted in such content and the contemporary standards of the country and people to whom such content relates shall be taken into account. Murugan added that the code also provides that OTT platforms would take adequate safeguards to restrict age-inappropriate content meant for children.