Comedy Central, Sorry but you repeated the mistake says MIB

Oops! We forgot to edit the TV show that was found to be offending the good taste or decency and denigrated women and was overall derogatory. Were the editors on a stroll, was it deliberate or plain unintentional. If we buy the argument that Comedy Central has put forward which is stated to be an ‘unintentional genuine error’, then mistakes ought not to happen again or repeated. Atleast that is what we were taught in school – that a sorry has to be genuine and mistake not to be repeated.

Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated. It has its footprints globally. Since late 2006, Comedy Central has expanded globally with localized channels in Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Latin America, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Republic of Ireland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia,[1] Spain, and the United Kingdom. International channels are operated by Viacom International Media Networks. In India it debuted in January 2012 and is a part of Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd

The Ministry of  Information & Broadcasting (MIB) as also the Delhi High Court has refused to but this reasoning and effective from Saturday, May 25, 2013 has ordered Comedy Central off the air for 10 days in India, for broadcasting absence jokes. The government has held that two shows on the channel, Comedy Central Presents and Popcorn, telecast in July and August 2012 respectively, violated the programming code of the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act, 1995.

The provisions include: no programme should be carried in the cable service which offends against good taste or decency; no programme should be carried which contains anything obscene, defamatory, deliberate, false and suggestive innuendos and half truths. It also says that no programme should be carried which denigrates women through the depiction in any manner of the figure of woman, her form or body or any part thereof in such a way as to have the effect of being indecent or derogatory to women or is likely to injure the public morality.

According to MIB, Comedy Central twice showed indecent & absence programmes in the last year, 2012, first in July and then in August. The first was an unnamed stand-up who performed an ‘obscene’ act with ‘suggestive gestures’ that ‘offends good taste or decency’ and ‘denigrated women’ in a Comedy Central Presents slot. The ruling referred to material that ‘indecently and crudely referred to sex organs of men and women’ adding that ‘the sing-song rendition by the man sought to pornographically describe the male lust, depicting women as a commodity of sex. The portrayal appeared to deprave, corrupt and injure the public morality or morals.’ At this point the channel had apologised for inadvertently airing the aforesaid episode due to “unintentional genuine error, and undertook not to repeat it.

Come August 2012. This time around, the second programme, a hidden camera show called Popcorn repeated a similar mistake, The show based on “playing pranks in public” on the lines of a candid camera, where a person pretended to engage in sexual activity with dummy legs, which “amazed,” “surprised,” “amused” onlookers. A lady passerby was shown looking at the prankster in complete bewilderment. The Ministry held the visuals violated several programming code provisions and issued a second show-cause.

The channel again submitted that since Popcorn was meant for a specific viewers segment and was produced out of India, editing was missed to be carried out before its telecast. It apologised, saying it was a “genuine operational mishap.”

After the MIB found that despite first time warning and advisory, the channel again repeated the mistake, it was constrained to act. Accordingly an inter-ministerial committee suggested that looking at violations, the channel be ordered off the air for 10 days. The channel appealed to Delhi High Court for the reversal of the order. However it lost the case on Friday.

While dismissing the order, Justice VK Jain said the penalty prohibiting the telecast of the channel for 10 days cannot be termed as “excessive, harsh or unreasonable”. Considering that the penalty could be prohibition of telecast up to 30 days for first violation and up to 90 days in case of second violation, the penalty imposed upon the channel cannot be said to be excessive or unreasonable. Even if one were to exclude the second violation i.e. telecast of the programme Popcorn from consideration, the penalty, prohibiting the telecast for 10 days for the first violation alone cannot be said to be excessive, harsh or unreasonable, the court said, referring to a 2011 policy on the guidelines for up-linking of television channels from India.