By Navneet Mishra

New Delhi, Nov 29 (IANS): In a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Friday, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry said that the government has even stopped broadcasts by private television channels for airing adult content.

The reply from the ministry came in response to a question of BSP MP from Jaunpur Shyam Singh Yadav who asked what action is being taken by the ministry to stop the broadcast of obscene content?

In its reply, the ministry shared the details of the action taken against the TV channels since 2016.

The reply said that action has been taken in 124 cases against private satellite TV channels, an advisory has been issued in 46 cases whereas a warning has been issued 39 times.

Apart from this, the channels were asked to run an apology 30 times while in nine cases the broadcast was stopped.

The ministry said that it is expected that all the TV channels will comply with the 2011 guidelines of The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995.

If any channel violates these guidelines, the Central government has the right to stop the broadcast of the channel. The government can issue an advisory or warning and ask the channels to run an apology. If the channels still violate the guidelines then their broadcast is stopped.