Last year, the Indian government banned advertising of liquor products in the electronic media.
The liquor industry along with their agencies responded by releasing a spate of ads featuring surrogate brands.
The govt. issued a number of warnings & finally threatened to 'black out' TV channels who aired surrogate liquor brands.
Next in line was a 'stern warning' to TV Channels for airing ads with gender & colour bias.
And recently, govt. issued warnings to music channels for airing sexually explicit music videos. (Some producers responded by obtaining 'Universal Viewing' certificates from the Film Censor Board.)

Self Regulation
As far as the govt. is concerned, the issue of regulating media content is in a way, connected to the issue of regulating media itself. Both are ostensibly driven by the desire to check & control content that is aired / published in mass media.

Since total censorship is not an option in any democratic state, govt. can do little about objectionable advertising (leave alone biased programming/editorial) without the co-operation of the media/advertising industry.

Therefore, it is imperative that the media/advertising industry establishes a voluntary code that its members adhere to. This will restrict the govt.'s role to that of a watchdog who, apart from growling regularly, will crack the whip only occasionally!

Industry bodies like the Indian Broadcasting Federation (IBF), Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) & the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) have to ensure that their members adhere to a well-defined code for media content.

Despite positive response from industry bodies like the IBF, the progress of self regulation is poor. This is not surprising: given the number of players involved, it will naturally take some time to arrive at a consensus.

In fact the first step is the most difficult: to define the code/guidelines which is agreeable to all players.

Defining Guidelines
Media content comprises of advertising as well as editorial/programming. And myriad issues are involved in regulating both. Issues in advertising content can be segregated into objectionable products/portrayal and mis-representation. While issues for programming/editorial content are diffrerent for news and entertainment (sports, movies, etc.)

The definition & relevance of objectionable products may vary with local culture and even depend on the media vehicle. (For example, adult channels & niche magazines could get away with content that would be unthinkable in a daily newspaper.)
But there can be no justification for misrepresentation, which is mostly (but not solely!) represented by the financial sector. Not that it is simple to monitor such cases. A recent judgement passed against an automobile giant for misleading consumers about the source of its technology, highlights the difficulty in identifying & bringing to book such cases. (It took nearly 2 years to get a judgement in a consumer court.)

The panel at the bottom was created by our team: it lists the basic issues behind regulating media & advertising content - making it obvious that defining a set of codes / guidelines for content is far from easy. And the complexity only increases manifold when you delve deeper!

Different Guidelines for Different Media
Print medium Newspapers & news magazines may be subjected to stricter guidelines than other magazines
Radio medium Being an "instant" audio medium, guidelines for radio may be more stringent than print
Television An "instant" audiovisual medium like television may need guidelines which are many times more stringent than radio & print. Also, since 30% of content comprises of movies, it makes sense for (partial) involvement of the Film Censor authority. And news channels will need a separate set of codes
Outdoor Freely viewable, larger-than-life, visual media like outdoor sites will demand its own set of codes
Cinema Since the content (films) is regulated by the Film Censor authority, the ads may be regulated by the same authority

Control on Internet Content & Access
The raging debates on regulating content on the Internet are legendary. And although there are
a few countries who control access to Internet sites, these form but a minority. By and large
there is little or no control in most democratic states. Suffice it to say that this topic forms adequate
material for a separate study!

No Option
Although it will be an achievement to get consensus from the industry to voluntarily adhere to a set of codes, there is really no other option.
ISSUES BEHIND REGULATION OF MEDIA CONTENT

ADVERTISING CONTENT
Category: Objectionable Products/Portrayal	Liquor
	Tobacco products*
	Objectionable characteristics:	Products which promote Gender bias Race & colour bias
	Disguised Ads:	Belonging to objectionable product categories Sponsorship field events which are highlighted in print/electronic media. Surrogate brand advertising. In-content endorsements of objectionable product categories
Category: Misrepresentation / misleading ads		Misleading financial ads
		Misleading product/service ads
PROGRAMMING / EDITORIAL CONTENT
Category: News & Analyses		Intent to promote anarchy / law & order problems
		Biased editorial / news analyses
Category: Entertainment	Movies & Music videos	Excessive sex & violence
		Discrimination based on race & colour
* Indian laws against tobacco products under consideration