Sunday, January 11, 2009

Sukhbir under fire for vice like grip on cable channels :- Sikh Press Network

CHANDIGARH: Across Punjab\'s cities and towns, TV viewing public can now predict at ten minutes notice when a particular Punjabi news channel will go off the air. Any news that shows CM Prakash Singh Badal or his family members -- wife Surinder, son Sukhbir, daughter-in-law Harsimrat, or close kin Bikramjeet Majithia -- in poor light is taken off the cable channels within less than ten minutes, clearly not a coincidence everytime.

After months of Chinese whispers that the Badals, led by the brash Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal, have adopted former CM Amarinder Singh\'s Punjab Today TV channel model as their own role model, Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira has now directly accused Sukhbir \"forcefully taking over the cable TV business in Punjab\".

Khaira not only has demanded a CBI probe into the matter, he has also written to the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, claiming Sukhbir and his henchmen have taken over the cable network business in the state \"through frontal cable companies such as DIGI Cable and Fastway Cable, which have \'benami\' shares of the Chief Minister\'s family.\"

Khaira alleged that this take-over had resulted in complete black-out of the Congress viewpoint from the electronic media when the Lok Sabha polls were round the corner, he asserted, adding that it had compromised freedom of the Press in the state.

People of Punjab only get to see those political news that suit the present SAD-BJP regime or the Badal family, which put all other political parties to major disadvantage particularly keeping in view the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, he said.

Khaira added that there was complete control of TV relay programmes through cable network business by Sukhbir Badal who has vested interest in the companies mentioned above.

To support his contention, Khaira has forwarded a complaint from Dish TV to joint secretary minister of I&B. And the ministry has urged Punjab chief secretary to take necessary action to enforce the provisions of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act-1995.

Khaira asserted that when he had raised this issue, ETC Punjabi channel was targeted for showing press conference and was blacked out from the state till the channel apologized and took action against an executive responsible for its telecast. Besides, he said small cable operators had been threatened, coerced and criminal cases registered against some.

In December 2008, Mohinder Singh Kaypee, working president, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC), has alleged that the cable network in the Punjab state was being forcibly taken over by Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal to stifle the voice of the people.

8 January 2009


http://www.sikhpress.com

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