Satire, it appears, threatens like nothing else. Be it the grizzly Charlie Hebdo attack or the hounding of the film PK closer home, the fundamental right to free speech has time and again been compromised to the might of the offended.
Television in India has been no exception. Late last November, those who tuned in to Comedy Central encountered a blank screen with a message that read, ‘The Comedy Central channel is temporarily switched off. We will be back soon. We regret the inconvenience caused.’
It was not a technical snag that foiled the broadcast but in fact the Delhi High Court, which upheld a ban imposed on the channel by the ministry of information & broadcasting, for airing ‘offensive’ content.
ADVERTISEMENT
For six days, from 12.01 a.m. on November 26, the entertainment channel was forced to go off air.
The channel’s shows Stand Up Club and Popcorn were deemed unfit for public viewing as they objectified women as ‘a commodity and threatened to deprave, corrupt and injure public morality and morals’.
Engaging with the debate which unfolded among women, Swaha Katyayini, a postgraduate student specialising in gender studies, says, “While the issue of censorship is complex and nothing is black or white, in cases where women are reduced to being one-dimensional sexual objects, I find myself finding reason in an intervention like this.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Gitanjali S., a media practitioner, on the other hand, says, “While very often, I find the images of women in mainstream media extremely problematic, I am not sure how banning them helps in addressing the larger issue. What I think would be more productive is producing content which counters this dominant portrayal of women.”
Watch Thyagaraja Aradhana online
This evening, seated in the comfort of your house, listen to compositions by various artistes on Saint Thyagaraja, for four hours from 5.30 p.m., onwww.paalam.in/tv.
Carnatic musicians O.S. Thyagarajan and the Malladi Brothers will perform at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. respectively. The pancharathna kritis of Saint Thyagaraja will be presented by women artistes from 6.45 p.m.
The evening’s programme will commence with an interview with N.V. Subramaniam, founder of Saraswathi Vaggeyakara Trust.
This is the 107th week of Paalam’s web telecast. In the past two years, Paalam, from the Mudhra stables, has received over 10 lakh hits.
“These programmes cannot be viewed again. Paalam is aimed at motivating rasikas to sit and listen to the programmes,” said Mudhra Bhaskar, mridangam exponent and founder trustee of Paalam.
“You can also watch the programme on your mobile phone onwww.paalam.in/mobile. Children, who don’t have time to attend concerts, senior citizens and differently-abled persons are our target audiences,” said Mr. Bhaskar.
(Reporting by
Nitya Menon and
Deepa H. Ramakrishnan)