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Self-regulation ineffective: AIDWA

Special Correspondent

Government not gender sensitive, says Ali
Ads should not promote dowry

NEW DELHI: In a bid to keep up the pressure on the government to regulate the electronic media, the All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) on Friday said that self-regulation had proved to be ineffective.

Addressing a meeting here on the proposed Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, AIDWA president Subhashini Ali said: “We would have liked self-regulation to work, but it is not working. There have been ample instances of this in recent days.”

Critical of the manner in which the Union Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry had handled the issue, Ms. Ali pointed out that as a result its enactment had been further delayed. “Because of this poor handling, even progressive organisations like ours are being billed as ‘Taliban’ and ‘moral police’.”

Ms. Ali was critical of the Ministry’s decision to give the industry time to frame its own parameters for self-regulation. According to her, the government was not particularly gender sensitive but was using the objections raised by women to further its main agenda of censoring news content.

In its note on the proposed legislation, AIDWA has clearly stated its opposition to any attempt to impose stringent censorship codes on news content. “This is sought to be done in many different ways but ultimately it boils down to ensuring that the acts of omission and commission of various governments, their representatives and their various organs are spared public scrutiny.”On advertisements, AIDWA has said that “mere regulation cannot ensure precedence for socially relevant content.” In its opinion, broadcasters must be made to outline a policy so that some amount of time in between commercial slots is dedicated to social issues during prime-time. Also, it should be specified that no advertisements should in any way promote dowry, son preference and fair complexion; all of which are detrimental to gender justice.

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