NEW DELHI, APRIL 24: Calling the Television Rating Points (TRPs) used by television channels to claim popularity figures a “gameplan”, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting P R Dasmunsi on Thursday told the Lok Sabha that he had been threatened five times for attempting to set right the irregularities in determining the TRP ratings.

“In a nation of 100 crore population, only 6,000 households were taken as sample, ignoring areas like Bihar and the northeastern region,” Dasmunsi said, replying to the discussion of Demand for Grants of his ministry for 2008-09. Stating that he had received threats five times, the minister said a woman BJP MP had shared with him the malpractices involved in TRP game.

Dasmunsi said some ‘intervention’ was required in the Cable TV Network (Regulations) Act, 1995 to address the issue of ‘obscenity and indecency on TV programmes’.

Many parliamentarians expressed objections on ‘indecent’ programmes being aired on private TV channels and demanded monitoring of fashion, music and reality shows.

Dasmunsi said some kind of intervention was necessary in the current situation and the I&B Ministry was consulting the Law Ministry on the issue. However, he clarified that the implementation of these rules lies with states and not with the Centre. The ministry, on its part, has issued some 280 showcause notices to various private channels for airing unseemly programmes since UPA came to power, he said.

MPs also took up the need for a code of conduct for private news channels to keep them from presenting programmes promoting superstition and ‘indecency’.

The Ministry for Information & Broadcasting has repeatedly been calling for a Content Code and Broadcasting Bill to regulate the private channels, but news channels in particular have resisted the move. However, private news channels under the head of News Broadcasters Association (NBA) have finally formulated a self-regulatory code of ethics as well as disputes redressal authority framework and submitted the same to the ministry.