Thursday, June 29, 2006

Control of Content available over Cable TV?

The last hearing of CBNSat held yesterday had some statements that may affect the whole Cable TV Industry in Sri Lanka. Please read CBNSat Case : Magistrate orders to meet Minister .
It has been made known that the Minister of Media has concerns over the somethings shown on CBNSat such as Fashion Shows and also something to the affect of transmission of security issues.

If channels are to be controlled on Cable TV operators due to moral influences then the local TV stations will also be under scrutiny since they also show stuff that is questionable. In fact there are more viewers of local TV and less viewers of Cable TV and the affects of so called immoral influences of Cable TV is much less when compared to local TV.
It is accepted that some things that are shown are not acceptable but why is this becoming an issue now when this was shown all these years over cable operators in Sri Lanka. The channel in question Fashion TV is shown over TV's in ODEL & HOUSE OF FASHION'S also and over every cable tv operator in sri lanka. It is a Free to Air Channel. People have the right to choose what they see and what they do not want to see and the technology should be made available to them to block out unwanted material.

It is also being revealed that certain channels are to be restricted under "security concerns". Well what these channels are no one knows but it looks like it will be CNN & BBC (it is only speculation). If this is true then it will be very bad since these channels are available over local tv channels in Sri Lanka and accessible freely over the Internet. Is this sensorship that is coming into Sri Lanka on the pretext of a different name.

We are going to have a Wimax operator in the country and then Internet access will be very common and stopping the worlds two leading news channels will not help. Information is available for free access to people. All one has to do is to access the Internet and there is loads of information.

It is high time that all channels Cable and Local joined forces to encounter what is beginning to look like the beginning of a period of time where all the channels are going to be told what they can show or not. Free Media by the looks of it seems to be under threat

All we request is let sense prevail. Free Media Movement, over to you.

Related Links CBNSat : 7th Hearing - A Soup and a Laugh
CBNSat Case : Magistrate orders to meet Minister

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

See Weekend papers...TRC calls for applications from organisations interested in cable/satellite TV