Advertisers say AXN ban not right

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New Delhi: First it an NRI doing what he thought was a funny act of the Mahatma in a video that was put up on you tube. The video brought the Government's ire on news channels that showed the clip.

But now it's AXN, the television channel that's been banned for three months for telecasting what the Information and Broadcasting Ministry says - "are against good taste or decency and are likely to adversely affect public morality”.

“Our ministry has decisively decided yesterday and it will be effective form today to prohibit the transmission and retransmission of AXN with immediate effect till March 15 throughout the country,” said Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Das Munshi.

This is the first time a channel has been banned completely. Though earlier, the government has restricted sexually explicit content from being aired. Whenever it's felt that it would apparently corrupt traditional values.

“The Government has been regulating the content of cinema for such a long time so I don’t it as a problem if they are doing it on television. Every channel ahs guideline and they all adhere to it,” said Creative Head, SONY, Sandeep Sikand

Last year in Mumbai, a ban on adult content on cable TV has led to high drama. Even the earlier NDA government had threatened to ban the French channel, FTV. Though later, an understanding was reached between the government and the channel.

But this recent ban on AXN has angered the industry that feels that such actions are undemocratic.

“We call ourselves a democratic country. But some thing like this can't happen. The Government shouldn't tell us what we should watch. Ironically what we saw with the Youtube thing was that very few people knew about it but when the ban was announced everybody started watching it,” says CEO, Future Brands Santosh Desai.

So with the Government deciding what people should watch, it looks like viewers no longer hold the remote control to their televisions.