New Delhi: The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has decided to take up the matters of media ethics, news coverage and the TRP scam issue for discussion next week.
The Parliamentary committee on IT has asked Broadcasters Association, Press Council of India and Prasar Bharati to depose on “Ethical Standards in Media Coverage”.
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.
Mumbai police recently said they had busted a racket where three channels— Republic TV, Fakht Marathi and Box Cinema-— manipulated Television Rating Points (TRP), a measure of viewership that drives advertising revenues, and arrested four people.
The Mumbai police have arrested two television channel owners while the directors and promoters of the third channel – Republic TV – will be investigated for allegedly manipulating television rating points or TRPs.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh said, “The arrested accused are owners of Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema channels while Republic TV’s directors and promoters are yet to be questioned. We will be calling some of the employees of the Republic TV channels for inquiry.”
The police swung into action after rating agency Hansa Services Private Limited, a contractor of BARC, which functions under Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) filed a complaint.