Indian Court Bans Comedy Central From Television
India has suspended the American channel Comedy Central for six days for showing "obscene and vulgar" programming. A court ruled Wednesday that the network violated Cable Television Networks rules by airing multiple shows where women were viewed as a "commodity of sex."
The ban came into effect on midnight Tuesday and will run until next week.
This isn't the first instance of India regulating content it deems inappropriate for its audiences.
In 2010, India suspended Fashion TV for 10 days for showing topless models in a fashion show. Further back in 2007, the same channel was suspended for two months after skimpy-clothed women appeared in a show called "Midnight Hot."
Comedy Central specifically has also been subject to these violations before. Last year, two of its shows, "Stand Up Club" and "Popcorn," were under surveillance from India's information and broadcasting ministry. It determined that the shows' content appeared to "deprave, corrupt and injure the public morality and morals."
The "Stand Up Club" contained "obscene dialogues and vulgar words derogatory to women and hence appeared to offend good taste and decency," according to the ministry. In that case, Comedy Central was given a 10-day ban.
The channel began airing content in India in 2012, but was taken off of the air for four days last year and was allowed back to broadcast after an appeal against the ban was filed.
The Dehli court upheld the ban Wednesday and ordered that the channel remain off the air for the remaining six days of the original ban. The ruling and initial ban has generated much criticism on social media sites.
"Proud to have a culture that's amazing, proud, been around for 1000s of years; and yet, sensitive enough to be offended by Comedy Central," Ramesh Srivats tweeted.
Comedian Brown Sahiba said, "And Comedy Central blacks out in India. Now we'll never be offended. Or entertained."
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