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Monday, January 19, 2015

Not in favour of 12-minute-an-hour cap on ads on news channels: Jaitley

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timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Deeptiman Tiwary,TNN | Jan 18, 2015, 08.56 PM IST

Indicating that government was not inclined to interfere either in the content or the business of media entities, Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said that the government was not in favour of a cap on advertising for TV or print media. Delivering the first JS Verma Memorial Lecture Jaitley spoke out against the 12-minute-an-hour cap on advertising stipulated for TV news channels by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). 

He wondered how such a cap fit with Article 19 1 A of the constitution that guarantees freedom of the press. "It will be music to the years of media persons. My ministry a couple of years ago came out with a statutory law that no channel will telecast advertisements beyond so many minutes. i have been struggling, in my own mind, since then as to how this meets the challenge of Article 19 1 (a)," jaitley said. He added, "Is the government supposed to tell newspapers and channels as to how much advertisement and how much news. If the viewers or readers find it monotonous, they have the power to switch on to something else. Government getting into the business of how much news and how much ads is a bad precedent to lay down." Media houses have been strongly opposed to this regulation as usurious carriage fees and falling advertisement rates have stifled TV news channel economy and broadcasters have been struggling to break even. 

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