Jul 17, 2014 | Age Correspondent | New Delhi
Private FM channels that would be granted licence under the Phase-III would be allowed to broadcast news only from the bulletins of All India Radio, but the government is open to changing guidelines on this issue at a later stage "as we gain experience".
Information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday told the Lok Sabha that this is for the first time that FM radio channels would be allowed to broadcast news as the existing policy debars them from reading out news on radio.
Replying to questions raised by several members, including NCP's Supriya Sule and Congress' Shashi Tharoor, the minister said the process of granting licences to FM channels under Phase-III would be completed soon and by March 30, 2015 the country will have 839 new FM channels and the number of cities with the facility would be increased from the present 86 to 227.
Mr Javadekar said broadcast pertaining to certain categories like information pertaining to sporting event, traffic and weather, coverage of cultural event, festival, public announcement pertaining to civic amenities and health alerts provided by local administration will be treated as non-news and will be permissible in the FM news.
To a pointed question from Ms Sule that why not FM channels be allowed to broadcast like TV channels, the minister said from the day one when FM channels were launched in the country, they have not been permitted to broadcast news.
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