LONDON: India's Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi has said that private FM radio stations in the country will not be allowed to broadcast news and current affairs programmes for another two to three years. A fresh look at the issue would be taken after observing the content being broadcast by these stations till that time, Dasmunsi told the BBC Hindi service. "Let us first wait and see what content would be offered by these stations for the next two to three years and then we would think about the next step. "We are presently not allowing news and current affairs programmes on private FM radio stations, as it is better to delay it so that no wrong information goes on air rather than trying to control the damage afterwards, which won't be easy," he told listeners from across the globe. "Let us look at the issue carefully. Television reaches the educated class of the country and extends to those who are not literate in rural areas by way of community TV. The rural people are more interested in entertainment programmes on TV and the interest in news programmes is less. "However, the fact with radio is that the news broadcast on it is considered the last word and has unmatched credibility. Therefore it is our duty to see that the news being broadcast on radio is correct and does not provoke any section of the society. Our challenge is greater than that of any other country. "We cannot compare ourselves with any other country in the world, as first of all we have to keep our country united. Nowhere in the world so many language and dialect channels are there. The US, Britain, France none of them have so many languages and channels," the minister said. Asked if it was logical to hold back news and current affairs from private FM stations when people already had access to so many international radio stations, the minister said: "Yes, people listen to multiple radio broadcasts but it is the All India Radio that they depend on for authentic information. "Look at the recent example of Gujarat riots, it was only after the AIR said peace was returning to the state, people were really relieved. So, it is an issue of content. It is not possible to liberalise news and current affairs immediately after having allowed private FM stations," he said. Asked how would the content on private FM stations be monitored, Dasmunsi said: "The government would evolve a content monitoring mechanism for private FM stations and this would not be done by the government but instead would be handed over to the players themselves and government would step in if only there was a violation of the mechanism, therefore we would like to proceed slowly." From Times of India,24th January ,2006. Did you know that largest democracy in the world did not allow private FM to broadcast news?? Well I did not know for sure. But I do know many things many things in this part of the world. Stiil learning...............