India asks music channels to apologise for “indecent†videos
Source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com
June 10, 2006 Author: http://www.khaleejtimes.com
NEW DELHI - The Indian government has ordered six music channels to broadcast an apology for showing â€Âindecent†videos and pull them from their playlists, an official said on Saturday.
The US-based MTV and Channel [V] of the Hong Kong-based Star Group are among six channels subject to the order issued by the ministry of information and broadcasting.
“The ministry has asked six channels to run a scroll (along the bottom of the screen) for three days to apologise for videos which violated the programming code,†a ministry spokesman told AFP.
The stations have been told to start running the message from Monday.
The ministry said it was forced to take action after getting complaints from activists and viewers about “objectionable†videos containing sexually suggestive images and promoting smoking and drinking, the official said.
He did not give specific examples of videos that had offended viewers.
If the networks failed to run the public apology, cable operators would be told to refuse to carry them, the ministry spokesman said, noting that videos had to be cleared by government censors.
Representatives of the music channels affected were not immediately available for comment.
