CABLE DARK OUT IN MUMBAI-DAY 2

Do you have a right to watch
this or not?

Last night there was a lot of snow in Mumbai. But it was not a climatic change, merely a dramatic one. Cable channels across the city went on the blink, leaving millions of Mumbaikars staring aghast at snow on their TV sets or Krishi Darshan on Doordarshan.

The operators pulled the plug on Mumbai's favourite entertainment after a series of police raids by the Social Service branch on cable operators under the Hathway and InCable umbrella and in which they sealed the decoders of nine television channels including that of HBO, AXN, Star Movies, Star One, Sahara Filmy, Sahara One, Star World.. The raids were conducted because cops said cable operators were showing adult films on TV.
In protest cable operators shut shop, saying they could do little as it was the channels that showed adult content and that they were merely the messengers.

Cable TV goes on the blink

While Star TV refused to comment on the matter, Anuj Gandhi, president of One Allainz that handles distribution network for Sony, MTV and Discovery said: "We have little control over this move of the operators . As per law I have no choice. It is not mandatory for the operators to give any prior notice to the public. As of now we only have to wait and hear what the high court says on August 23," he added.

The issue began with morality super-cop Pratibha Naithani filing a petition in the high court against obscenity on television.

Last week (August 16), Naithani's lawyer had argued that despite an earlier order to the contrary, a total of 85 films with 'A' certificate and 42 films with 'U/A' certificate had been shown on Cable TV and that three other films with no censor certificate were beamed.

the High Court asked Director-General of Police Dr P S Pasricha why his department had not pulled up the cable operators who were still beaming channels which showed adult content. However, an affidavit filed by Pasricha only stated that the DCP enforcement has issued only show-cause notice to concerned cable operators. Pasricha's affidavit was silent on the actual action taken, which infuriated the judges. And so the raids on Monday.

"It is for the Information and Broadcasting minister to come up with a proper guideline for such channels. The police should not harass us for things which are out of control," said an official for Hathway requesting anonymity while Ganesh Naidu, secretary of the Cable Operators Distributors Association said they would be meeting AN Roy on Tuesday before taking a call on whether the cable system would be switched back on or not.

For us viewers meanwhile, there is always Krishi Darshan.


WHAT THEY SAY

• We are mature adults who know what our children should watch. If there is anything vulgar or indecent, we can take measures to prevent our children from seeing it. A blanket ban in the name of moral policing is ridiculous.
— Amit Sathe, Prabhadevi

• We watch television only after 8 pm and we are missing our favourite serials. I heard the cable connection is down due to some strike.
— Versha Bhatia, Marine Drive

• We are missing all our favourite serials. Even my daughters are upset. The rumour is that the black-out is due to Ustad Bismillah Khan's death, but cable operators say it's a technical problem.
— Chandresh Shah, Marine Drive

• I have been forced to listen to songs on the radio, but the strike called by cable operators is justified. We saw the notice on channels which stated that the government should pull up the channels, and not cable operators.
— Ankur Sawant, Tardeo


• Should viewers have the choice to watch adult films on TV, or should they be banned?

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Its really sad.

i hope everythng is fine nw