The Secretary, Ministry Of ... vs Cricket Association Of Bengal & ... on 9 February, 1995 theories, explanations and discoveries, and lastly, it helps to promulgate a society's cultural values and facilitates the debate about them, ad- vancing the development and survival of civilisation. 36.Referring to the reasons for regulating the broadcasting media, the learned author has stated that, first, the Government realises the potential of channels of mass communication for contributing to democracy or undermining it. They hoped to foster a public service ethos in broadcastings so that it would be a medium for educating and improving the population. Secondly in order to do this its was necessary to keep the media of mass communications from having programme policy dictated entirely by market forces. A strong pubic sector and regulation of the inde- pendent sector when one started to operate, were called for. Thirdly, when commercial broadcasters appeared on the scene, 1 and a regulatory scheme was being developed for them, it was thought to be important to preserve a diversity of ideas by preventing oligopolistic concentrations of power in the hands of a few, usually rich and conservative media magnates, and to ensure that licences were granted only to people who could be expected not to abuse the privilege. The need to preserve propriety has been a motivating factor in the regulation of commercial broadcasting over much of the world. Fourthly, government hoped to ensure that civilised standards were maintained, to uphold social values. Fifthly, wave lengths for broadcasting were limited. This purely technical consideration sharply distinguishes broadcasting from newspapers, and justifies a higher level of regulation. In theory, if not in practice, there is nothing to prevent any number of newspapers being published simultaneously. The only controlling mechanism needed is that of market forces. This is not true of broadcasting. Some control over the allocation of wave- lengths is 'needed in order to ensure that there are sufficient for all legitimate broadcasters. Lastly, another legitimate object of national regulation is to protect the intellectual property rights of programme makers and broadcasters. It is permissible on this ground for an Organisation to prevent people from getting access to programmes without paying proper licence fees. One way of preventing this is to encode programme transmissions and to restrict access to decoders to people who pay the fee. 37. The freedom to receive and to communicate information and ideas without interference is an important aspect of the freedom of free speech and expression. We may in this connection refer to Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights which states as follows: " 10.1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises. 2. The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are -prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or pub- lic safety, for the prevention of disorder or Indian Kanoon - http://indiankanoon.org/doc/539407/ 22