[sacw] Noorani on Ban on Pakistan TV (EPW)

[aiindex@mnet.fr]

June 25, 1999
FYI
(South Asia Citizens Web)
======================

From:
Economic and Political Weekly (Mumbai)
June 12, 1999
Civil Liberties Section

Ban on Pakistan TV

By A G Noorani

BAR a few honourable exceptions there have been no protests worth the
name against the government of India's order forbidding cable networks
from transmitting Pakistan's TV telecasts. The order is palpably absurd,
illiterate and unconstitutional. The Indian Air Force launched its air-strikes
in the Kargil sector on May 26. Exactly a week later on June 2 prime
minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said in Mumbai that the situation had
"considerably improved". That very day in the city his colleague Pramod
Mahajan, minister for information and broadcasting, announced that he
had given orders imposing an indefinite ban on receiving signals of Pak
TV.

Mahajan said: "The channel has been broadcasting false and mala fide
news which might create a confusion in viewers' minds." Are the viewers'
minds as weak and impressionable as that of the judge who heard only one
side because when he heard both sides he got confused. More than one
daily quoted his exact words expressing his dread of 'confusion'.

It is time this issue is faced squarely, for Pak TV has been fair game for such
blackouts. On February 28, 1998 the police commissioner of Hyderabad,
C Ramaswamy, ordered cable operators to black out Pak TV with effect
from March 2 in view of its "motivated campaign" which might "disturb law
and order". The insinuation was as plain as the official's utter lack of
authority. That insinuation is not far beneath BJP minister Pramod
Mahajan's remarks either. "The message being given by PTV might lead to
internal insurgency in India." Who are the people Mahajan had in mind
whose loyalty to India is so fickle that PTV could drive them to insurgency?

Incidentally, the order is worthless in the states affected by insurgency. In
Kashmir as well as in the north-east, satellite dishes dot even the rural
areas. For that matter the affluent ones in India's major cities who can
afford to have them will not be affected either.

Mahajan threatened action by the police against those who disobeyed his
order. Where does the police come in? Yet Bombay's police commissioner
A S Samra had no hesitation in sending cops to cable operators in the city
in November 1993 during the Hazratbal crisis ordering them not to receive
and communicate signals from Pak TV.

To begin with, neither the police nor the government as such has the power
to impose such bans. The discretion belongs to officers authorised by the
government. Section 19 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act,
1995 reads thus: "Where an officer, not below the rank of a Group 'A' officer
of the central government, authorised by the state government in this
behalf, thinks it necessary or expedient so to do in public interest, he may,
by order, prohibit any cable operator from transmitting or retransmitting any
particular programme if it is likely to promote, on grounds of religion, race,
language, caste or community or any other ground whatsoever, disharmony
or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious, racial,
linguistic or regional groups or castes or communities or which is likely to
disturb the public tranquillity."

Section 20 adds: "Where the central government thinks it necessary or
expedient so to do in public interest, it may prohibit the operation of any
cable television network in such areas as it may, by notification in the
official gazette, specify in this behalf." A blanket power.

In neither case is appeal to an independent tribunal provided, unlike
Section 15 which provides for appeals against orders of seizure and
confiscation of equipment. Section 19 and also Section 20 are thus
patently unconstitutional. The restriction they impose on the fundamental
right to freedom of speech and expression conferred by Article 19(1)(a) of
the Constitution is not "reasonable" as its Clause (2) insists, because
there is
no safeguard against abuse of the wide power conferred.

Note that Section 19 confers a severely limited power to ban transmission
of "any particular programme" only, not an entire TV channel. The word
'programme' is defined in Section 2(g) to mean and include, among other
things any "audio-visual live performance or presentation" - a particular
programme. For instance a particular film which spreads communal hate.
That is the true purpose of Section 19 - spread of "disharmony" among
citizens of India or disturbance of "public tranquillity". How can the very
popular drama serials or songs telecast by PTV possibly fall within the
purview of Section 19?

To come to news telecasts, they will, of course, present Pakistan's viewpoint
which an Indian citizen has a right to hear. Freedom of speech includes
the right to receive information. Yugoslavia did not ban receipt of BBC or
CNN telecasts. Those who find it unwelcome or even offensive have the
option not to view the telecasts. The ban robs the citizen who wishes to
view Pak TV of his right and freedom to watch it. Obviously, no such ban
can be imposed in respect of Pakistan's radio broadcasts. Nor can private
TV channels like Star and Zee TV be banned from telecasting interviews
with Mushahid Hussain, Pakistan's minister for information.

Pramod Mahajan only arouses people's chauvinistic emotions when he
says, "I appeal to all of you to call up the offending cable operators to stop
beaming the channel". That he knows little of the law becomes clear from
his interview to The Times of India (June 6, 1999). Section 19 does not
confer a discretion only, he claims. It imposes a duty to ban. Ever the
demagogue, he argues "ask the families of all those who have sacrificed
their lives for India; ask them if what I did was wrong". If PTV beams
"ludicrous, nauseating and obviously biased reports" viewers have the
option of not viewing it. No government has the right to tell citizens what
TV channel they must not watch.

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