Government may ban political surrogates from owning television channels

In a move which could impact television channels run by close affiliates of political parties, the Union Government is considering the possibility of clamping down on surrogates in the media sector. 

In a consultation paper on issues related to media ownership released on Friday, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has raised the problem of surrogate entities being used to bypass its existing ban on political, religious and governmental bodies entering the broadcast media space. 

“While recommending the disqualification of certain entities for entry into broadcasting and distribution activities, TRAI’s basic intention was to ensure that power of the media is not exploited by such entities for swaying public opinion in their favour, or for promoting vested political interests and propagating ideologies,” says the paper. “There is a need to address the problem of surrogates, whereby a disqualified entity may wield media power through another entity over which it has influence, and which does not suffer from general disqualification for entry into the media sector. Grant of license/permission to such a surrogate entity may defeat the very purpose of putting general disqualifications in place.” 

TRAI pointed out that other international regulators — for example, the U.K.’s Ofcom — prohibit such surrogates, as persons “subject to undue influence by an otherwise disqualified person.” 

The paper expressed worry about the “increasing trend of influence of political parties/politicians in the media sector. Political parties either directly or indirectly through surrogates control newspapers, TV channels and TV distribution systems.” 

TRAI observed that such a scenario is more prevalent in regional markets, with channels directly or indirectly named after political leaders or parties, and complaints of cable distributors using political backing to extend their monopolies.

“In such a situation, the broadcasters are at the mercy of these politically backed entities for distribution of their channels in that region,” warns the TRAI paper. “Such entities may practically throttle content selectively to suit their own agenda as well as fetter competition in the market, depriving consumers of the benefits of effective competition.”

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/1696-government-may-ban-political-surrogates-from-owning-television-channels.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/1696-government-may-ban-political-surrogates-from-owning-television-channels.html