Telecast of advertorials which promise miraculous products or self-proclaimed babas and gurus who offer supernatural solutions on TV has not gone down well with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry which has told channels to refrain from showing such content.

Sources told PTI that after noticing that many TV channels were telecasting programmes which appeared to encourage superstition, the I&B Ministry had issued an advisory to broadcasters last week.

In its advisory, the ministry said that were advertisements in which unsubstantiated claims were made about products which the general audience could easily believe as truth.

“Such advertisements or advertorials are, therefore, not only misleading, they also appear to encourage superstition and blind belief among the viewers,” the ministry’s advisory said.

The advisory also says that “most advertorials relating to astrology, vastu , so called discourses by gurus and self-proclaimed healers are being shown for hours together in such a way that it might lead viewers to believe they are watching a programme even though they are actually watching advertisements.”

The I&B Ministry further added that the telecast of such content on TV amounted to gross violation of the Advertising Code contained in the Cable TV Networks Rules, 1994.

It said that according to rules, advertisements should not contain any references which are likely to make the audiences believe that the product or any of its ingredients have some miraculous or supernatural property which it is difficult to prove.

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