Obscenity
Attack on religions or communities
Visuals or words contemptuous of religious groups
Content which promotes communal attitudes
Content which criticizes, maligns or slanders any individual in person or certain groups, segments of social, public and moral life of the country
Further, the Advertising Code, inter-alia, stipulates that indecent, vulgar, suggestive, repulsive or offensive themes or treatment shall be avoided in all advertisements.
The Central Government has also established a statutory mechanism for redressal of grievances/ complaints of violation of Programme and Advertising Codes. As per the three-level grievance redressal mechanism, any complaints regarding the content broadcast by private satellite TV channels, are dealt as follows:
Level-I: directly received and disposed of by the Broadcaster
Level -II: Self-Regulating Bodies of the Broadcasters
Level-III provides for Oversight mechanism by the Central Government.
The Government acts against private satellite TV channels by issuance of advisories, warnings, apology scroll orders and off-air orders etc. The Ministry also issues Advisories from time to time to private satellite TV channels for adhering to the Programme Code and Advertising Code.
The details of action taken by this Ministry in last 5 years in respect of all violations of the Programme Code and Advertising Code as under:
| S. No. | Description | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Total |
| 1 | Advisories to specific
channels |
5 | 7 | 14 | 3 | 6 | 35 |
| 2 | Warnings | 25 | 6 | 17 | 1 | 1 | 50 |
| 3 | Orders for Apology Scrolls | 11 | 39 | 3 | – | 1 | 54 |
| 4 | Off-air Orders | – | – | 3 | – | – | 3 |
| 5 | Cancellation of permission | 1 | – | – | – | – | 1 |
| 6 | Order for disclaimer | 1 | – | – | – | – | 1 |
| TOTAL | 43 | 52 | 37 | 4 | 8 | 144 |
Apart from above, the Government takes all possible steps to curb violations by other media platforms, which include:
- Print media: Newspapers have to adhere to “Norms of Journalistic Conduct” brought out by the Press Council of India (PCI). These norms, inter-alia, restrain publication of fake/ defamatory/ misleading news. The Council holds inquiry into alleged violations of the norms, as per section 14 of the PCI Act, and may warn, admonish or censure the newspaper, editors, journalists, etc. as the case may be.
- Digital media: For the publishers of news and current affairs on digital media and publishers of online curated content, the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021) provides for a Code of Ethics along with a three-level institutional mechanism for redressal of grievance relating to violation of Code of Ethics by such publishers.
This Information was submitted by the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Dr. L. Murugan in a written reply in Lok Sabha today in response of questions asked by Shri. Kalyan Banerjee. (PIB)
