India agreed to reverse a ban on Fashion TV for being too "vulgar" after the France-based channel promised to make programs more in keeping with Indian sensibilities, a diplomat told AFP Tuesday.
India's minister for information and broadcasting, Sushma Swaraj, held talks in New Delhi with FTV bosses on Tuesday during which she said she was not opposed to fashion just too much nudity, said the diplomat.
"Fashion needs clothes on the body," Swaraj, a renowned Hindu nationalist, told the FTV executives while at the same time expressing appreciation for the channel's promotion of Indian designers, said the diplomat.
Under a compromise deal, FTV agreed to tinker with its programming to make it "more in keeping with Indian sensibilities".
India's information ministry declined to comment on the meeting.
FTV is beamed from Singapore and its distribution in India is controlled by its local partner, B4U, under an agreement reached in May last year.
The programming on FTV includes fashion shows, showcasing the latest in haute couture by a host of international designers. The channel is seen in 100 countries and some 200 hours per year are devoted to Indian fashion.
India announced last week that it was forcing the channel off the air because of its "vulgar content".
"The discussions were positive," said Francois Thiellet, managing director for MCM International, which has rights to develop FTV around the world.
The FTV executives were given a video of segments of programming deemed to be "obscene" by the Indian authorities and "unsuitable" for local audiences.
Thiellet said among the changes that would be brought in would be the moving of programs involving "lingerie" out of the peak family time of 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
He said the channel also planned to set up a new channel called FTV India.
Swaraj and a special parliamentary committee viewed clips of FTV telecasts on February 15 and unanimously disapproved of much of the content two days after Swaraj's deputy Ramesh Bais announced the channel would be banned.
The committee asked the minister to take up the matter with FTV and "find a way out" by removing the "objectionable segments from the telecasts beamed to India."
India's coalition government is dominated by Hindu nationalist parties who come under daily pressure from fundamentalist groups to crack down on anything deemed to be an invasion of Western culture -- NEW DELHI (AFP)
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