New Delhi : The Centre has proposed setting up the National Broadcast Authority of India, a government appointed committee to control the news channels. the committee will have the power to screen programmes or advertisements before broadcast, and formulate the content code.

The committee will have all the powers that were part of the controversial Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, 2007, which had to be shelved because of fears that it would have led to censorship.

The I&B ministry's new draft envisages a three-tiered redressal structure with the initial two tiers of content monitoring being that of self-regulation. Grievances or complaints that are not settled by the channel itself or by the industry association (at the second level) will then go to the NBAI. The NBAI will be the final authority for all issues related to content and carriage.

While the "oversight-of-last resort" arrangement is clearly meant to ward off criticism that government wants to control content, this by itself may not assuage the concerns of censorship.

The ministry's task force report gives the NBAI the power to authorise officers to block news content if public tranquility is disturbed as described under Section 19 of the Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act. It also suggests that the Centre retain powers to intervene in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of the country.

The NBAI will, according to the draft, comprise one representative of the media, while the other six members will include "eminent persons'' with 15 years of experience from fields of law, public administration, finance, IT and social work.

The NBAI members are proposed to be appointed by a committee headed by the Vice President and including the Lok Sabha Speaker, a Supreme Court judge or alternatively a nominee of the President or Press Council of India chairman.

Broadcasters have been consistently opposing government control over news content. In their meetings, the News Broadcasters Association (NBA), Broadcast Editors Association (BEA) and the Indian Broadcasters Federation (IBF) have argued that the self-regulatory mechanism set up by the TV channels and the industry associations should be allowed to stabilise and mature over a period of time. This, they feel, will adequately address the concern of the viewers.

A government appointed and funded appellate authority that comprises only one member from the media will not be able to reflect the concerns of all TV channels, according to them.

Broadcasters also pointed out that the government already has the power to block content on any channel and, in fact, in recent times has taken severe action when it felt that the news coverage of an event was not appropriate.

News broadcasters also expressed fears that the NBAI will be filled with retired bureaucrats or civil society members as is the practice in nearly all regulatory authorities. The lone representative of media may find it difficult to put across his or her viewpoint.