Fashion T V - Boon Or Bane.
Recently Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan suggested that the government should impose a ban on websites that exclusively display pornography.
The chief justice said “Any technology is capable of beneficial uses as well as misuse. It is the job of the legal system and regulatory agencies to keep pace with the same and ensure that newer technologies do not become tools of exploitation and harassment, ”
The government has yet again banned the Fashion TV citing that the channel had violated norms of decency by showing semi-nude women. The ban came six months after the channel flighted a re-run of a catwalk show from the late British fashion designer Alexander McQueen on September 4. The Information & Broadcasting Ministry said the visuals were “denigrating women and not suitable for unrestricted public exhibition”.
The channel will go off air on Thursday, Mar 11 and the ban will last for a span of ten days till Mar 21.The ministry’s statement said that, the visuals were found to be obscene, denigrating women and were not suitable for children and unrestricted public exhibition.
This is the not the first time that the government has taken such a decision against the channel. The ministry had prohibited its transmission from April 1 to May 30, 2007 on grounds of ’telecasting programmes such as ’Midnight Hot’ wherein skimpily dressed and semi-naked models were shown’.
Earlier, the government had banned AXN’s World’s Sexiest Advertisements on similar grounds. These acts of moral policing sparked outrage among liberals and the fashion community has protested the move saying that the government should not presume to judge and decide what responsible adults alone should decide.
I was searching answers for several questions; do we have clear distinction between what’s moral and immoral? If yes, how & who will decide it? Does banning deserve as much attention as media seems to have given it?
I appreciate & respect the Governments decision to ban the FTV Channel for ten days. But generally banning web sites, TV Channels is a bad idea. In a free Democracy censorship should be minimized as much as possible. Educating the public on the ills of porn sites & TV channels is the best solution. We should stop trying to be China and ban things. Bans and prohibitions do not work. History clearly bears this out. There is a ban on porn web sites in Arab countries and still one can see most porn search is done by Arabs on the net.
I do agree, our Indian cultural values are different from those in Europe and the United States, Freedom of culture and expression should always be respected & accepted but freedom to spoil the culture should not be encouraged.
Each individual thinks differently, sexy minds will see sex, business minds will see business.Fashion and vulgarity are two different things and one should not mix both of them. While the former is acceptable in society, the latter brings society towards destruction.
Fashion has been an exhibition of creativity since ages. But today unfortunately fashion has taken a dangerous dip into the realms of vulgarity. Fashion is the reflection of one’s taste and ideologies. But it should not cross the boundaries of decency and dignity in defining fashion statements. Whatever could be theme of fashion, either development or innovation, it should be within the framework of the culture.
Many fashion designers are not happy that FTV has been banned for ten days. Further they argue that for the students who are pursuing their careers in fashion technology & designing, banning FTV channel by the government is putting hurdles & the learning process for these people will become limited & upcoming career opportunities will definitely hamper.
Temporary banning does not solve the issue. Instead of banning the Fashion TV a channel dedicated to fashion, the government should strictly monitor & consider in fixing specific timings for TV channels to beam adult content & the TV channel needs to respect Indian sensibilities when it comes to showing nudity.
Please share your valuable views.<