“Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has received several representations from the media agencies regarding certain proposed changes in the Cable Television Network Rules currently under consideration. He has assured that the matter will be taken up for finalisation only after the widest possible consultation with all the stakeholders and eliciting their different points of view on the proposed changes,” a statement issued by his office read.

The PM’s statement comes a day after broadcasters approached leaders across the political spectrum apprising them of the Government’s attempts at “muzzling the press” through the proposed amendments. The I&B Ministry had proposed amendments to the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, to block out blood and gore, occultism, superstition and sexually explicit images, desist from dramatisation of news, drop live contact with victims and security personnel and depend on details given by an ‘authorised officer’ for coverage of operational details in war like situations.

TV editors welcomed Government’s response and said they looked forward to complete closure of this issue so that such regulation never comes into force, their statement said.

While editors of leading news channels met CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and BJP president Rajnath Singh on Tuesday, Wednesday was a packed schedule with the broadcasters starting the day with a meeting with Samajwadi Party’s Amar Singh and ending with a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Broadcasters also met LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, RJD’s Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and BJP’s L K Advani. Karat had already shot off a letter to the PM on the issue on Wednesday.

“Our party is of the opinion that there should be no hasty step taken regarding media regulation. Apart from the self-regulatory mechanism put in place by the news channels, it is necessary to have co-regulation through an independent regulatory body... How this is to be done has to be discussed and a common approach arrived at. Till then, no steps should be taken to empower the Government and the administration to further regulate the news channels,” Karat has written to the PM.

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi is also said to have assured broadcasters that she would bring it to the Government's notice and added that the Congress believed that the freedom of the press should not be compromised.

“L K Advani said the proposed amendments were a throwback to the Emergency days as the opposition was not informed or consulted on this issue. Both Ram Vilas Paswan and Raghuvansh Prasad Singh were aghast at the proposed rules and said they would oppose any such move. We showed Sonia Gandhi a copy of the emergency protocol that we have come up with and she seemed quite positive about self-regulation,” said a news channel’s editor.