Govt streamlines security clearance for TV channels, MSOs, CR stations

[Sajee]

NEW DELHI: Owners of cable TV companies,
television channels and community radio
stations can breathe a lot easier. The
government has streamlined the process of
security clearance for them by making it
valid for 10 years from the earlier three
years, thus bringing it in line with licences
that are valid for a period of 10 years.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the
nodal ministry for providing security
clearance, has conveyed this to the Ministry
of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) in an
order.

The new procedure for security clearance
will be valid for uplinking and downlinking of
TV channels, multi-system operators
(MSOs), teleport players and community
radio stations.

The MHA order also says that if permission
is granted to one channel, no more security
clearance will be required for subsequent
launches in the same sector.

However, the MIB will obtain an annual
undertaking from the company and its
directors that they are not involved in any
criminal or anti-national activity. The
ministry will also enforce continuous
content audit to ensure that subversive or
anti-national content is not aired.
The order further states that “security
clearance conveyed to an entity in one
proposal shall remain valid to other
proposals (within the same sector)”.

However, the clearances would not be valid
if there is a change in the board of directors
or in the ultimate beneficial ownership of 10
per cent and above in the company, or in
cases of expansion of existing community
radio service licence to border and Naxal
areas.

Besides, security clearance obtained for one
sector cannot be valid for another. This
means a company cannot use security
clearance granted to a bouquet of channels
to run a community radio station.
The MHA, during the previous UPA regime,
had extended the validity of security
clearance to 10 years from three years,
following representation by the News
Broadcaster Association (NBA), which had
demanded that security clearance validity
be made co-terminus with the licence
period.

Nevertheless, the ministry had added a
caveat that the issue could be revisited. It
had also mandated that fresh security
clearance would be required in case of new
channel launches or a change in the board
of directors.

Govt streamlines security clearance for TV channels, MSOs, CR stations | TelevisionPost.com