MUMBAI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has received 750 complaints of paid news during the state assembly elections in the current year, Information & Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari said.

In comparison, the ECI had received 155 complaints of paid news during the state assembly elections last year.
Tewari also informed that the Press Council of India (PCI) has received nine complaints of paid news this year compared to 17 in the previous.

"The Press Council of India (PCI), an autonomous body to maintain and improve the standards of press, received 17 complaints of paid news in the year 2009-10, two complaints in the year 2010-11 and 11 complaints in 2011-12 and nine complaints till date in the current year," Tewari said in a statement laid in the Lok Sabha.

In response to another question, Tewari told the Lok Sabha that Doordarshan had earned Rs 865.7 million from the auction of slots on its direct-to-home (DTH) platform to free-to-air channels in the year 2011-12.

NEW DELHI: Manish Tewari, until now national spokesperson for the Congress party, has become the new Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister as Minister of State with independent charge.

The new I&B Minister will hardly have time to settle down as the four metros of India move nearer to the digitisation deadline of 31 October. Tewari will have to be firm as several local cable operators have sounded a possible law and order problem with a large number of consumer homes still not having digital set top boxes (STBs). They have been asking for an extension of the deadline but the government has resisted claiming that the STB penetration has touched as high as 85 per cent, a figure various industry experts have found hard to digest.

Tewari, like his predecessor Ambika Soni who resigned on Saturday to devote her energies to strengthening the party ahead of the General Elections in 2014, hails from Punjab. Soni is a Rajya Sabha member from the states, while Tewari is a member of the 15th Lok Sabha from Ludhiana.

Soon after the swearing in by President Pranab Mukherjee, Tewari said he would contact the outgoing Minister before saying anything about digitisation for which the deadline is 31 October. "I have not applied my mind to it so far. I will talk to all the stakeholders. First I will talk to the outgoing Minister Ambika Soni?.

S Jagathrakshakan, who was until now Minister of State for I&B, has been moved to New and Renewable Energy.

The I&B Ministry does not have a Minister of State at a time when cable TV digitisation is on the anvil. Furthermore, the Ministry has a vital role to play ahead of the elections.

Tewari, 47, is a first-time member of the Lok Sabha and was elected in May 2009. It is for the first time since independence of the country that Ludhiana has got representation in the central Government. As an MP, he has been member of several Parliamentary Committees.

His father late Vishwanath Tewari, a professor of Punjab University, was a freedom fighter and also a Member of Parliament and was killed by terrorists a few months before Operation Blue Star. His grandfather Tirath Singh had been a Minister in the Congress Government in Punjab.

Manish is married to Dr Naaznin B. Shafa, a Parsi who was also involved with the National Students Union of India (NSUI) along with him.

Tewari is a popular face on television as he has argued vociferously and impeccably for the Congress party on several issues.

Commencing his association with the party in 1981 through the NSUI while still in DAV College in Chandigarh, he became National President of the NSUI in 1988 and a member of the All India Congress Committee in 1991. He became Secretary of the AICC in 1997 and National President of the Indian Youth Congress in the following year when he was also made the national spokesperson for the Congress. His predecessor in the Ministry, Soni, had also held the post of President of the Indian Youth Congress in the mid-seventies.

His interests include pro bono legal assistance to the poor, and watching historical and period movies. He has contributed numerous articles on current and topical issues such as energy security, national and international security, nuclear disarmament, terrorism etc. to periodicals and addressed national and international seminars and conferences on these subjects

As a student, Tewari had been involved in swimming and running; and captained the Chandigarh and Punjab University teams to various National and Inter University Swimming and Water Polo Championships.

Tewari is widely traveled and has been to around 30 countries.

Meanwhile, eminent Telugu film actor K Chiranjeevi, the only other new face to be sworn in as MoS with Independent Charge, has been given the Tourism portfolio.

Kapil Sibal, who had been holding dual charge of Communications and Information Technology as well as Human Resource Development Ministries, has now been divested of HRD which has gone to M M Pallam Raju who has been promoted to Cabinet Rank.

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NEW DELHI: The Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2012 received Parliamentary approval on the last date of the budget session, with the Lok Sabha passing it unanimously today.

The Rajya Sabha had passed the legislation late last week. The legislation will now go to the President Pratibha Devisingh Patil for her assent, before it is notified and becomes law.

The legislation had been opposed in Parliament in its last session, particularly the clause for statutory licensing for radio broadcast of literary and musical works.

Song writers, artistes and performers received unanimous support from members from all parties in the Lok Sabha for their claim to get royalty for their creations, with many MPs pointing out that the benefits of the songs have so far been kept by producers.

The bill declares authors as owners of the copyright, which cannot be assigned to the producers as was the practice till now.

Noting that artistes had been left in the lurch as the producers cornered all the royalties, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said in reply to a brief debate that the new law will help them live a good life even in old age as they would continue to get their dues for their work.

He gave examples of Shehnai exponent Bismillah Khan and music composer Ravi to press home the point that the condition of such excellent artistes was pitiable as they were not able to pay even house rent and hospital charges.

It will now become mandatory for broadcasters - both radio and television - to pay royalty to the owners of the copyright each time a work of art is broadcast. It bans people from bringing out cover versions of any literary, dramatic or musical work for five years from the first recording of the original creation.

The bill also seeks to remove operational difficulties and address newer issues related to the digital world.

However, a provision initially placed in the Bill to provide royalty to the principal director of a film in keeping with the suggestion of the Parliamentary Standing Committee has been removed. "We wanted to actually give this right over royalty to principal director. He is perhaps principal creator. But there was a feeling expressed by the Parliamentary Standing Committee that the time is not ripe to give that right. So, we are dropping it," Sibal had told the Rajya Sabha.

The cabinet had earlier deferred moving the bill because of differences between the Information and Broadcasting and HRD Ministries. It was understood that the two Ministries in their ?fine tuning? exercise had also agreed to restore the provision of statutory licensing as proposed earlier in 2010.

The amendments to the Copyright Act 1958, aim at according unassignable rights to ?creative artists? such as lyricists, playback singers, music directors, film directors, dialogue writers who will be paid royalty every time the movie they have worked in is aired on a television channel.

A statutory licence is an exception under Copyright Act. It puts limits on the basic principle of the copyright law, that authors and creators should have the exclusive right to control the dissemination of their work. Under statutory licensing, the royalty or remuneration for the author or creator is specified by law or such set negotiation.

With the bill getting clearance, the statutory licensing clause will not specify users allowing for television and new media broadcasters as well as radio broadcasters to benefit.

NEW DELHI: The first session of the Indian Parliament commenced on 13 May 60 years earlier.

Doordarshan and Lok Sabha TV will cover live a special session of the Lok Sabha to be held on Sunday 13 May to commemorate the occasion. The live telecast will be from 5.30 pm to 6.30 pm.

On the same day, Doordarshan will telecast on DD One a programme on ?Hamari Lok Sabha? at 4.30 pm and ?Hamari Sansad? at 5 pm.

MUMBAI: Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi has taken a leaf out of Mamta Banerjee?s book. After ?Didi?s announcement about launching a television channel and a newspaper in West Bengal to focus on the positive side of things in the state, Gogoi said the Assam government would soon launch its own television channel to ?show the truth?.

Apparently, Gogoi is hurt by the way local television channels in the state covered the recent 12-hour bandh sponsored by the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) on the day Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Assam.

"The television channels had sensationalised, exaggerated the ULFA bandh episode, and they ignored the good side of that day,? he said.

Appreciating Banerjee?s decision, Gogoi said, "I am following in her footsteps to highlight our government?s achievements. Having a dedicated TV channel like Lok Sabha TV is important."

He regretted that the private TV channels keep ignoring the government?s ?success stories?.

"Our proposed channel will stress on disseminating correct information of our policies and programmes of education, health and agriculture sector," he said.

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