NEW DELHI: The Government is not considering any proposal to permit news broadcasts on private FM Radio channels.

This was stated by Information and Broadcasting secretary Sushma Singh, when answering a question on the sidelines of the Second Indian News Television Summit organised by indiantelevision.com.

Singh noted that the government had studied the reports of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India as well as the Ficci in this connection.

Answering another question, she said the government was considering the report on television audience meters received recently from Trai.

She said the government was under pressure from the judiciary to finalise and enforce a Content Code for television broadcasters, but regretted that the one finalised by a group of stakeholders from all sectors set up by her ministry had not been accepted by the news channels.

She said all stakeholders would be consulted before any Content Code is finalised. Draft codes had been prepared by the News Broadcasters Association and the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, but these were now being considered with legal experts and stakeholders.

She said the government was bound by certain orders of the courts and had to submit reports on this at regular intervals.