New Delhi: The Broadcasting Content Complaints Council wants its recommendations to be extended to the policy guidelines on downlinking of channels in India.

Until now, the BCCC, set up by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) for general entertainment channels, has been making recommendations confined to the policy guidelines on uplinking of channels in India.

Effectively, this could mean that BCCC would be able to make comments even on channels that are being downlinked from overseas, according to sources in the IBF.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry says it is ?actively? examining the various recommendations received from the BCCC, Ministry sources told indiantelevision.com.
BCCC Chairperson Justice A P Shah told indiantelevision.com today that the recommendations were made in response to an interaction with the ministry, and it was for the government to take a decision on these.

Among other recommendations made earlier this year, the BCCC has asked for gradation of ?violations? from mild to severe and said that as a general practice, sanctions imposed should be in the nature of fines and directions for correction

It has said that fines should be substantial in case of serious violations, and not merely token fines. For this, the BCCC has suggested appropriate amendments to Clause 10.2 of the uplinking guidelines.?The BCCI said suspension and revocation of licence of television channels that violate the various codes must be resorted to in exceptional circumstances and only in cases of repeated and extremely severe violations.

Sanctions under Clause 8.2 and Clause 10.2 of the uplinking guidelines should be imposed only in cases of repeated and extremely severe violations. Clause 8.2 provides for prohibition of broadcast for up to 30 days for the first violation, for 90 days for the second violation and for the remaining period of the permission in case of third violation.

Clause 10.2 provides that renewal of permission will not be considered if a channel is found guilty of violations, including that of the programme and advertisement code on five occasions or more.

It says factors to determine the severity of the violation include degree of breach (extent and the severity); duration of breach (time period for which the breach was alive); harm caused (whether any injury has been caused to the objectives of the restrictions); reversibility of the harm (whether the harm can be corrected through any measures); and measures taken for correction of the breach by the broadcaster.??

The BCCC also says the decision of the relevant adjudicatory body pertaining to the imposition of fines, issuance of directions, suspension and/or revocation of the license, should be made appealable.?The decision of the adjudicatory body should be in consultation with the relevant self-regulatory bodies on a case-to-case basis, to determine the degree and extent of the violation by the broadcaster.??

The BCCC points out that while passing the relevant order of sanction, the deciding authority should consider whether the self-regulatory bodies have already taken cognisance of the violation and whether any penalty has been imposed before arriving at its decision. In any case, any decision should be in ?effective consultation? with the self-regulatory bodies, the BCCC said.

The BCCC was set up by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation in June 2011 as an independent body for general entertainment channels. The BCCC came into being after consultations between the IBF and the I&B Ministry to implement ?self-regulatory guidelines and complaints redressal mechanism? for all television channels, excluding news and current affairs channels. The general entertainment channels, children?s channels and special interest channels are covered by the BCCC.