AXN apologises to govt; promises to improve self-regulation

MUMBAI: A week after the Centre banned AXN from Indian airwaves, the channel on Tuesday said it had issued an apology to the government and promised to put in a significantly improved system to self-regulation.

"AXN has issued a formal apology to the Government of India for AXN's alleged violations of Indian content restrictions," the channel said on Tuesday.

"AXN has agreed to put in place a significantly improved and more effective system of self-regulation in order to ensure that programs and advertisements do not create further problems in the future," it said.

The channel officials acknowledged that the MIB's ban of distribution of AXN in India on 17 January 2007 was based on programs and advertisements that had been previously exhibited on it in India.

The channel is actively cooperating with the Government in order to find a resolution to the current situation, the channel added.

On January 17 the government had banned foreign satellite channel AXN with immediate effect till March 15 for showing indecent content.

"It was decided to prohibit transmission or re-transmission of the channel up to March 15, with immediate effect," I&B minister P R Dasmunsi said.

The channel incurred the ire of the ministry for telecast of a programme `World's Sexiest Advertisements' that is against good taste or decency and is likely to adversely affect public morality, he added.