India Bans French Fashion Television Channel For Obscenity
India on Thursday banned the French satellite channel Fashion TV (FTV) for two months saying the network broadcast indecent programmes which denigrated women.
India’s Federal Information and Broadcasting Ministry announced that the transmission of television channel was prohibited on all platforms for two months beginning 1 April.
The Ministry said FTV was telecasting programmes such as ‘Midnight Hot’ in which “skimpily dressed and semi-naked models are shown that are against good taste and decency, denigrates women and are likely to adversely affect public morality”.
This is the second time in the recent months that the Indian government has banned a popular foreign channel.
In January, the government had banned AXN, an action-adventure television channel, for telecasting a programme World’s Sexiest Advertisements, which had sexual imagery and overtones.
The ban was revoked earlier this month after the channel submitted an apology and promised to abide by government regulations governing television.
This is not the first time that the FTV has run into trouble with the Indian government. Back in 2001, the right-wing Bhartiya Janata Party-run government had threatened to ban the channel because of its content.
The Indian government, which allowed broadcast of satellite TV programmes in the 1990s, has been sensitive about the programming content as politicians and viewers complain about lewd programmes on television on regular intervals.
Professionals in India’s film and advertising industry have been critical about such ban orders, but Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi has asserted that he would play the role of “moral police”.
Dasmunsi has told local news outlets that he was duty-bound to do so, under India’s Cable Television (Networks) Act of 1995.
