Briefing mediapersons here today on the outcome of the two-day conference of state information ministers, Dasmunsi said the states had agreed in principle to the long standing demand for reduction of entertainment tax.

He said a group of ministers would meet here on October 5 to sort out issues related to the Prasar Bharati structure and personnel.

Seeking support of the states for monitoring television content, the minister acknowledged that the uplinking and downlinking guidelines under which channels may be penalised for airing questionable content did not have legislative backing. The guidelines require the channels to adhere to the programme and advertising code prescribed by the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act.

The government was keen on giving these guidelines a legislative backing by creating a regulator through the Broadcast Services Regulation Bill, to enforce the content code, but the broadcasters resisted the move. The issue was taken up by Dasmunsi at the conference.

He hoped that the Monitoring Committee mechanism at the district and local level for programmes and advertisements telecast by TV channels, which was proposed in the last SIMCON (State Information Ministers Conference) would have yielded the desired results.

Responding to the demand for allowing broadcast of news and current affairs programmes by private FM channels, the minister clarified that the government has not allowed it as there is no effective system to monitor the FM stations.