MUMBAI: On 17 December, the Broadcasting Content Complaint Council (BCCC) had held a meeting in Mumbai to discuss the 30 – 40 complaints received against numerous channels and what action should be taken.

One of the biggest decisions taken from it was for Sony. The channel management has been asked by the council to run an apology scroll on 30 December. The complaint was filed with regards to the display of a board promoting abortion in Madana Khurd village during an episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) aired on 19 August.

However, sources from BCCC said that the issue was raised against the show’s producers a couple of months back on a complaint by the Haryana Health Department. As per reports, the board read “500 rupees me garbhpaat karwao aur 5 lakh ka dahej bachao (Get the abortion done in Rs 500 and save dowry of Rs 5 lakh).”

As per the directive, the channel has to run an apology scroll in Hindi and English during now-off-air KBC’s time slot i.e. from 8.30 pm to 9 pm on 30 December.

Of the numerous complaints, the independent council, set up by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) to examine complaints about television programmes received to ensure that the programmes are within the self-regulatory content guidelines, also discussed complaints against Zee TV amongst other networks as well.

“One of the episodes of Zee’s popular programme Qubool Hai showed a woman being tortured and hence, a complaint was filed against it,” informs the source from the council while adding that an explanation has been asked from the channel and the decision on what should be done next will be taken on 20 January.

Similarly, south India’s Asianet also received complaints against its two programmes out of which one was disposed off while the other’s decision will be taken on 20 January as well.