Govt. bans FTV channel for 9 days for obscenity

The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has banned the transmission or retransmission of the Fashion Television (FTV) channel for nine days from tomorrow for showing obscene visuals in a programme telecast by it on September 4 last year.

An official press release said the Ministry had prohibited the transmission or retransmission of the channel with effect from 7.00 pm tomorrow until 7.00 pm on March 21 through cable television networks and any other platforms throughout the country.

The Ministry said it had observed that FTV had violated Rule-6 (1) (a), (d), (k), (o) & 6(5) of Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994 and therefore, the Ministry, in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of Section-20 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, as amended from time to time, had taken this action.

The release said the Ministry had noticed that FTV had telecast a programme on September 9 last year at 15:37:34 hours and 19:01:48 hours showing women with "nude upper body which was offending against good taste and decency."

"The visuals were found to be obscene, denigrating women and were not suitable for children and unrestricted public exhibition," the release said.

According to it, in the past, too, the Ministry had prohibited transmission or re-transmission of FTV from April 1, 2007 to May 30, 2007 on grounds of telecasting programmes such as "Midnight Hot" in which "skimpily dressed and semi-naked models" were shown.

The prohibition was, however, revoked on May 25, 2007 after FTV India Channel regretted its error and assured that such an error would not be repeated in the future, the release added,

NNN