Foxed cable operators continue to beam PTV

NEW DELHI, June 2: The broadcast of Pakistan Television PTV was banned in the country by Information and Broadcasting minister Pramod M...

NEW DELHI, June 2: The broadcast of Pakistan Television PTV was banned in the country by Information and Broadcasting minister Pramod Mahajan this afternoon. But till late this evening most cable operators in the Capital didn8217;t know about the diktat that had been issued. The few who did, are questioning the validity of such an order. There are others who want to know how the government is going to ensure that the channel will be off the air everywhere. The result: PTV continues to be a remote-control option for most households in Delhi.

Announcing his decision, the minister said that the ban was necessary in view of PTV8217;s anti-India propaganda and misinformation in news regarding the Kargil infiltration. And to ensure that the order is followed, he went on to ask state governments to issue immediate orders to the police, asking them to take action against cable operators who did not follow the order.

8220;I don8217;t know anything about this,8221; says Tarun cable operator from Mayur Vihar. 8220;We get our link from a master control room and if they stop showing a channel, we stop showing it. But as of now we are getting the PTV signal and are airing it. There is no order that has come from the government regarding not showing PTV.8221;

In fact, cable operators are saying that they don8217;t expect the government to come out with any written order. 8220;We will probably read about it in tomorrow8217;s papers,8221; says a south Delhi operator. 8220;Moreover, how are they going to ensure that the order works. In Punjab, Jammu amp; Kashmir, PTV is easily accessible. People there don8217;t even need to tune their TV sets to catch the channel.8221;

While the minister seems to have said his two lines at the inauguration of a new studio building for Mumbai Doordarshan, cable operators in the Capital were surprised that the minister could have thought of something like this.

8220;Our Bill is still pending in Parliament,8221; says Shouvik Dasgupta, an operator in East of Kailash. 8220;The government cannot give us an order like this when there are no rules that govern us. The only area where we can probably get into trouble is if we show obscenity, which is why TB6 was taken off the air. But otherwise, I don8217;t see how the government is going to force operators to black out a channel.8221;

Mahajan has appealed to the people to ensure that cable operators do not violate the orders and black out the channel. 8220;It will finally boil down to just that,8221; says Sanjay of Cable Network. 8220;I8217;ll stop showing the channel if my customers ask me to. Otherwise, till I hear of any drastic steps being taken, the channel will be on air.8221;

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Now that the minister has made his annoucement, operators are waiting to see what his next step will be. Some of them are willing to take the channel off air because of how they feel about the Kargil situation, but others are still debating the validity of the order.