In case of a national/regional satellite channel, the committees should send their views across to the ministry for further action. The case in point is the Gujarat incident last year when a district magistrate had got a news channel blocked when it aired a sting operation on 2002 riots.

A committee is entitled also to take action against cable operators if they are not airing channels that are compulsorily to be broadcast or if their audio-visual quality is poor.

The ministry also clearly outlines the constitution of a state level committee which will be chaired by the Secretary, Information & Public Relations of the state and have as its members representatives of the state police DG, state secretaries social welfare development and women and child development besides representatives from a leading women-centric NGO in the state, academicians/psychologists/sociologists nominated by the chief secretary and director information of the state as member secretary.

A state-level committee will keep a watch on formation and performance of district level committees, take decisions of issues referred to it and recommend actions even against satellite channels to the ministry in case of violations.