Government taking steps to curb illegal TV channels: Soni

New Delhi, Dec 7 : The government Monday said the information and broadcasting ministry was in touch with the home ministry to curb the showing of illegal and unlicensed television channels by cable operators.

The centre has asked states to take action and also written to the union home ministry in the matter, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told the Rajya Sabha during Question Hour.

"It is a fact that many complaints about illegal channels being shown in various parts of the country have been received by us. We wrote to all chief secretaries of states to take action against cable operators and multi-system operators (MSOs) who are showing them," she said.

In reply to another question, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Mohan Jatua informed the Rajya Sabha that the government had issued an advisory Oct 7 to all authorised multi-system operators and cable operator associations to discontinue with immediate effect transmission/re-transmission of illegal channels.

Jatua made it clear that if the advisory is not followed, penal action will be taken against illegal operators.

Nearly two months ago, Soni had written to Home Minister P. Chidambaram and the chief ministers to take requisite action after getting complaints over showing of illegal TV channels like Peace TV, ARY Q TV, TV Maldives and Saudi TV, which are exclusively focused on Islamic teachings.

None of these channels are permitted to broadcast in India, but they are being illegally down-linked by some cable operators, reportedly in league with broadcasters, in violation of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act.

According to the guidelines laid down by the information and broadcasting ministry, all channels are required to obtain down-linking permission from the ministry to beam inside the country.