NEW DELHI: With reminders falling on deaf ears, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has cracked the whip on surrogate advertising, which many cigarette and liquor companies use to sidestep the ban on advertisements of such products.

Over a score of channels have been issued show cause notices and told in no uncertain terms that they have to suspend showing surrogate advertisements immediately.

To make sure that the channels fall in line, the Ministry has drawn up weekly schedules for its officers to monitor programming across networks even after the working hours. In particular, they have been asked to watch prime-time programming between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Under the scanner

Nearly 60 channels have been brought under the scanner and 25 officials of the Ministry were put on the job for the week ending this Thursday. They have to view the channels assigned to them — some have even been entrusted with three channels — and report any violation of Rule 7(2)(viii)(A) of the Advertising Code prescribed under the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, (CTNRA).

They have also been told to furnish the name of the channel besides the date and time when the surrogate advertisement was aired.

Rule 7(2)(viii)(A) of the Advertising Code mandates that "no advertisement shall be permitted which promotes, directly or indirectly, the production, sale or consumption of cigarette, tobacco products, wine, alcohol, liquor or other intoxicants." Though this rule has been in place for years, many companies have sidestepped this rule by bringing out soda, glasses, and fruit juice by the same name to promote the brand.

Erring channels have been given time to respond to the show cause notices, asking why action should not be taken against them for violating the CTNRA.

Under the new uplinking and downlinking guidelines notified last year, a graded penalty regime has been put in place. It allows the Government to ban an erring channel from going on air for varying durations.

The period could vary from 30 days to the remaining duration of its licence.

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