Opinion

Gross infringement of TV viewers’ rights

29 May 2015 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Nobody would expect a dance to be performed by a semi nude woman or a group of such women at a religious ceremony held at a temple or a church or a mosque. But we are being compelled to watch this happening on a daily basis within our own sitting rooms. While we watch a religious programme on the television sometimes the programme abruptly stops for thirty seconds or so to give way for a trailer of a dancing programme in which scenes of the men and women dancing in costumes inappropriate to the religious programme already on air are incorporated. This is no doubt utter disregard to the sanctity of the religion concerned.

There have been instances where sermons of certain leading Buddhist monks on the TV were disturbed by the ambush by commercials which in most cases were in sharp contrast to the sanctity of the contents of the sermons. A regular sight nowadays is commercials being tied to the time announcements and the television stations so strictly tend to respect the contracts with the clients that they abruptly stop even a discussion with a leading clergy just to announce the time along with a short commercial. Sometimes commercials bound with time would emerge all of a sudden amidst a serious live discussion with a professional or a politician and by the time it ends the viewers might have been deprived of an important or interesting point or an invaluable fact transpired in the discussion. This is in a way negating the very purpose of the discussion.

Religion cannot be and should not be treated on a par with commercials. Also many performances of artistes, especially dancers are immoral in the eyes of any religion. If commercials or such dissolute performances intruded into the religious programmes and went hand in hand with them, even the adults, leave alone the children, would not be able to grasp the sanctity and the seriousness of the religion which would be very dangerous. One may be a materialist, but he has to realize the influence that the religion has exerted on the ordinary man in protecting himself from social ills while the law has largely failed to do it.
During the shooting of a film or a teledrama the director sometimes would cut a particular shot and re-shoot it if an unintended object moved into the frame. However, when the film or the teledrama is telecast various commercials and announcements are being trailed in a lower strip of the television screen disturbing the scenes of the movie. Sometimes the visuals used by the commercial are more attractive than the disturbed scene of the movie. This is no doubt infringement of the entertainment right of the television viewer.

Nobody would contest or deny the importance of advertisements for the survival of the media institutions.Also needless to say that commercials in electronic media are imposed on the listeners and viewers unlike the advertisements in the print media which could be ignored by the readers if he was not interested in them. And also it goes without saying that with the popularity or the rating of TV stations mounting the influx of commercials they would attract would also be on the rise. Television viewers have to tolerate this situation to a certain extent. However, it is unfair by the television viewers to telecast commercials that run counter to the very purpose of the programmes which those commercials are accompanied with.

Opinion

Gross infringement of TV viewers’ rights

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