Sunday, March 27 2005 11:18 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: In a strong signal to those purveying obscenity through television channels, Government has revoked the licence of a channel 'CineWorld' for a month for showing obscene movies.

The Government, which is in the process of setting up a separate regulatory body for monitoring content on various TV channels, has warned the channel that if it engaged in similar activities again, its licence would be terminated.

"The Government is serious on this issue and would keep a close watch on channels engaging in such activities," Information and Broadcasting Secretary Navin Chawla said in New Delhi.

He said that the Ministry had received many representations from women's groups, consumer organisations and educationists on the issue of obscene material being shown on TV channels.

"Through this action, which is the first of its kind, the Ministry has come down strongly on those purveying obscenity and this can include cable operators as well," he said.

Government had last month held a workshop with various stakeholders, including cable operators, broadcasters, women and other concerned groups, where the issue of content on channels also came up for wide discussion.

Chawla said that the monitoring activity of the channels continues to be done by the agency CMS. "We have tapes to show that the channel had violated the provisions of the Cable TV Network Regulation Act by showing illegal scenes," he said.