“When doctors are admitted to a PG course at concessional rates, they have to serve in rural areas. If they cannot fulfil that condition, then the doctors will not be given their certificate. If they refuse the condition, then they are fined heftily,” it said.
“Why can’t you have guidelines like that? This should be the teeth of guidelines,” the court said.
Datar said in case a channel refused to adhere to the NBSA guidelines or if it refused to pay the fine, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) could step in and take action.
He also said that if self-regulation failed then the court, too, had ample power to step in.
Datar said the NBSA also felt its guidelines should be made mandatory and their violation should be taken as a ground for granting injunction (against the offending channel).
“Otherwise there is no deterrence,” he said.
However, the NBSA was not in favour of any new statutory body to regulate the media, he said.
“We do not want a statutory body over the existing system of self-regulation. The fastest relief is the court’s relief. Courts have considered several cases in the past too,” Datar said.
“I (news broadcasters) do not want the statutory remedy to take away my remedy with the court. I am safer with the court than with a statutory body,” he said.
The court has been conducting the final hearing on a bunch of public interest litigations seeking that the press, particularly TV news channels, be restrained in their reportage on the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
Source: https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/national/why-cant-nbsa-guidelines-be-given-more-teeth-bombay-high-court-asks-centre
