Friday, June 24 2005 18:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Government has decided to exempt foreign news channels from seeking permission for Live reporting from India by issuing year-long licences, apart from imposing a small fee on all broadcasters operating in the country.

These recommendations form part of the uplinking and downlinking guidelines the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has prepared, highly placed official sources said today (Jun 24, 2005).

"With the emphasis on regulation and not on revenue, the Ministry has proposed that all the channels would be required to pay a Rs five lakh registration fee and a Rs one lakh annual fee thereafter," the sources said.

This, they said, was applicable to both news and non-news channels.

"Also, channels which are uplinking from abroad would need to have a registered office in India, instead of having representatives," they said, adding that this was being proposed to make them accountable under Indian laws.