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Date Posted: 05:38:48 01/24/06 Tue
Author: ganesh angarik
Subject: censorship on televiosn

censorship on televiosn

Censorship on television this topic its self is the seed of a large tree which manifests into a debate world wide specially in India . Being claiming to are world’s largest democracy India and its leaders desperately want to censor the television industry.
It is wired and absurd why would any government want to cripple the wing of an industry which in not years faraway will be one of the biggest revenue giver to government
According to money magazine the television industry or the entire entertainment business together will take the position of number in ranks of prosperous industry in India

Today with globalization and boundaries becoming mere lines on the globe television industry is also globalizing. Many channels for instance say cartoon network fox etc which are incorporated in western countries like U.S.A. and Australia etc have found a place in the minds of Indian and the audiences around the world.

But the recent interim orders of the Bombay high which bands and binds the hand of all the channels from telecasting obscene material has again raised the long buried Question of television censorship
Many politicians’ social workers and many other believe that there is a need on a separate body for television censorship which would decide what people can and can not watch .

But according to me One must understand that where there is a remote in the hands of the viewer, there is a choice to be made. The censor is the person holding the remote and who decides whether he/she or even his or her family should see a programme or not. The market that backs or sponsors programmers - soaps, music videos or movies and which targets its viewers with a particular kind of programming is also the censor.
Demand creates supply on television, not vice versa. Television is not a medium which can afford huge risks. Therefore, investment is calculated.
The number of channels in India determines the diverse viewer ship patterns we have and then they are coincided with the existing market shares. Someone is willing to pay for a programmer only if someone is willing to see it. Therefore, the current nature of soaps, movies and music videos that are being shown on television is only because there is a huge demand for such. And above all, one must understand that the people making programmes are also emerging out of various segments of society which in turn comprise viewership.

Censorship in India, according to me is an eyewash. It is a method of a system to prove to its people that it has an eye on what’s going on. Nothing other than that! Else, why would a system ban advertising of tobacco or alcohol on television and not ban it from being manufactured or sold in the market? Why would a system shut its eye to surrogate advertising of the much banned products through other media like events, sports etc?
Expression can never be controlled. It cannot be limited within parameters. It will find some outlet or the other. Expression banned is expression unleashed. People find loopholes in law, seek outlets or else go about their business illegally and the very system perpetrating warped values and morality is left with no alternative but to turn a blind eye to it.
It’s high time we realise that the more we try to cloak the definition of morality, the more naked it gets.
The need now is to redefine morality as the masses see it or else everyone will do as they please and the failing system and its laws will become completely redundant. Technology is growing too fast for the system to catch up with it and if reality is not confronted very soon, the system which has lost its hold on censorship to people in the form of a remote control will soon be stared in the face by children from small towns and villages who will capture the real on their personal cameras and broadcast on local channels completely in control of neighborhoods.
The champions of good values must act. They must realize that morality stands for good performance at work and disciplined human behavior. Not about what people wear, eat, and drink or what they don’t wear, don’t eat and don’t drink. And above all not what caste, creed or religion they belong to.
Therefore, everything is permissible in television which has a viewership, in effect finds subscription/sponsorship. Censorship cannot become the carpet that an attitude of one segment of society against the demand of another can be swept beneath.
Guidelines cannot be the same for each and every channel. Therefore a system has to be put in place whereby viewer ship segments are segregated, masses are sensitized to what children can see and cannot see and broadcasters disciplined about the timings of adult programmes.
So the Question again arises whether the censorship of television is really necessary?

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