The Centre has approved new guidelines under which it has become obligatory for channels to telecast content of national interest and public importance.
After 11 years, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting approved the guidelines for the uplinking and downlinking of TV channels yesterday. The guidelines were first issued in 2005 and revised in 2011.
Television channels will have to broadcast 30 minutes of public interest content every day on themes of national interest such as education and spread of literacy, agriculture and rural development, health and family welfare, science and technology, the welfare of women, welfare of the weaker sections of the society, protection of the environment and of cultural heritage and national integration.
“It is not that the government will give any programmes to the television channels for broadcasting under public interest content. The channels are free to create their own content on the themes mentioned in the guidelines,” I&B Secretary Apurva Chandra said.
The new guidelines state that a company can use news gathering equipment other than Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG), such as optic fibre, back pack, mobile, for which no separate permission would be necessary.
