Shooting the cable messenger

The order of the Mumbai High Court disallowing broadcast of movies certified as “for adults only” on television has raised important issues. While it merely restates provisions of the cable television network regulation Act, and calls for its implementation, it leaves several questions unanswered.

To start with, there is the question of classification. Even some fairly innocuous films have got an “Adult” rating, similar to films with much more sexually graphic or violent content. This will, at one stroke, equate a wide range of films as unsuitable for television screening. Moreover, as the television channels who were party to the suit argued, these films are telecast from overseas and beamed to scores of countries. Cable operators can do little to stop the broadcasts.

To apparently counter that point, the court has made it mandatory for Indian cable operators to “blank out” the screen whenever adult films are shown. This is easier said than done. It is akin to telling the newspaper delivery boy to read and cut out offensive photographs from the publications he distributes.

Governments and broadcasters the world over have grappled with the issue of adult content on television and have come up with many solutions. One of them is restricting such films to after 11 p.m. Technology has also helped. There are chips available with special pin codes that lock television sets. This makes adult content inaccessible to children.

The government needs to work with television channels to explore such avenues; instead, the court and the existing law have empowered the police to go to the extent of seizing the equipment of cable operators if they are found to be showing any channel that telecasts a banned movie.

This order however will not be easy to implement. As it is, pirated versions of the latest Bollywood movies are openly shown by cable operators across Mumbai. When the state cannot stop that—a clear offence under Indian law—how will it ensure that the provisions of this new order will be implemented?

The television medium is intrusive. In this context, public display of obscenity is a controversial issue. However, an individual’s right to decide what he or she—or their children—can watch is equally important. The cable Act needs to keep up with the times. This may be a good time to revise it.