Tuesday, January 06, 2015

Indian Community Radio Monitored, Expanded by Lawrie Hallett

Following the change in the country's government earlier this year, the Indian Information and Broadcasting Ministry has ordered that its Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC) begin real-time broadcast radio monitoring as soon as practically possible. 

The organization checks the contents of broadcast programming for compliance against the Indian broadcast content and advertising codes. This new policy has been gradually implemented over the recent months. 

The EMMC already collects and analyzes the output of some 300 of India's nearly 800 television stations, but the additional monitoring, initially of more than 100 private commercial FM stations and some 30 or more or the longest established nonprofit community radio stations, on a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week basis, will demand considerable additional resources.