Viacom 18's Comedy Central suspended for airing objectionable content

Indian television broadcasters do not seem to be adhering to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting's content guidelines. The Ministry too has been cracking down severely on offenders.

The most recent victim is Viacom 18's Comedy Central, whose telecast has been suspended for 10 days for airing objectionable content on two of its shows Popcorn and Stand Up Club.

Earlier this month the ministry had also issued a notice to the Star India's movie channel, Movies Ok, for airing 'Dil Jale' a film that had been given an adult certification by the censor board. A similar notice went to MSM's action channel, AXN, for showing a film called 'Darkness Falls' which again had an adult certification. Both Movies OK and AXN have apologised for their error. AXN said that the correct certificate was not shown due to "a human oversight" at its up-linking centre in Singapore. Movies Ok claimed it had obtained a 'V/U' certification (ie video for universal viewing) to air the film, but again due to human oversight, the screen showed the original 'A' certification.

The charge against Comedy Central seems to be much more serious. The show cause notice issued by the ministry says the channel violated the Cable  Television Network Rules and aired content that had "obscene dialogue and vulgar words derogatory to women and hence appeared to offend good taste and decency." A Viacom 18 spokesperson said the company had appealed against the notice and was awaiting a response.

Though a large section of industry feels that the content was not derogatory enough for the channel to be suspended for 10 days, isn't it time Indian broadcasters pull up their socks and get a little more careful about the content they air?