Agencies
New Delhi, October 10:
Amid reports of Television Rating Points (TRP) manipulations by some channels, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology has decided to take up the matters of media ethics, news coverage and the TRP scam issue for discussion next week.
This comes after Congress MP and member of the panel Karti Chidambaram requested Shashi Tharoor to take up the issue and call the officials of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry before the committee to seek clarification and remedial measures. Karti Chidambaram had said, “The government’s advertising expenditure depends on the TRP system, and public spending should not be based on flawed data.”
The Parliamentary committee on IT has asked Broadcasters Association, Press Council of India and Prasar Bharati to depose on ‘Ethical Standards in Media Coverage’.
“Flawed or manipulated TRP cannot be the basis of ad spend. TV companies also base their valuations on TRP. Those valuations are questionable now,” Karti further said.
It has been notified that the next two sittings of the Committee will be held on October 15 and 16. On Thursday, the Parliamentary panel will be taking up the topic of “ethical standards in media coverage”.
Among the issues that will be discussed are “safeguarding citizens’ rights and prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms including special emphasis on women security in the digital space; review of the cybersecurity scenario in India; and a review of the functioning and outreach of Doordarshan channels, among other topics”.
It further said that the sitting would discuss the matter with representatives of News Broadcasters Association, Press Council of India and Prasar Bharati on the subject ‘Ethical Standards in Media Coverage’. This will be followed by evidence of the representatives of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on the same subject.
On Thursday, the Mumbai Police claimed it has busted a TRP scam involving three TV news channels — Republic TV, Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema.
Police said owners and top management of Republic TV would be called for the interrogation in connection with the TRP scam, while owners of the two other channels have already been arrested.
The racket came to light when BARC, an organisation which measures TRP, filed a complaint in this regard through Hansa Research Group Pvt Ltd, police said.
TRP is a tool to judge which TV programmes are viewed the most and also indicates the viewers’ choice and popularity of a particular channel.
Shashi Tharoor was reappointed chairman of the reinstated Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, days after BJP members sought his removal for summoning Facebook officials before the panel.
