AMRITSAR – Two months after the Punjab Assembly unanimously passed a resolution to urge the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee to permit all TV and radio channels to air Gurbani straight from Darbar Sahib, PTC Network has got blocked the Morning Hukamnama pronounced from the sanctum sanctorum of Darbar Sahib Amritsar early in the morning every day, on some Facebook Pages, including the audio of the Hukamnama that was being sourced from SGPC website, claiming exclusive rights backed by an agreement signed with the SGPC.
While SGPC officials said they were not aware of the issue, PTC Network has claimed that it holds exclusive rights to telecast audio of video of Gurbani from Darbar Sahib, and nobody could run it after downloading it from the SGPC site also.
While a website which carries content on Sikh religious and community affairs shared this restriction on its FB page along with its disputing claim to Facebook, industry sources revealed that some more pages, including that of a Punjabi daily, are also facing such action from PTC.
“We take the audio of Hukamnama from SGPC website which provides the link to the audio, run its script on our own and have a fixed picture of Darbar Sahib along with it,” said Paramjit Singh Gazi who runs the website Sikh Siyasat. He said that he had already written to FB to unblock the video.
When contacted, SGPC chief secretary Roop Singh said he was not aware of the issue and directed the query to SGPC’s spokesperson Kulwinder Singh, who also said that he had just learnt about it and was trying to contact SGPC president Gobind Singh Longowal.
PTC Network’s president and managing director Rabindra Narayan said, “PTC holds exclusive rights to broadcast by any means worldwide the Gurbani, including Hukamnama from Sri Darbar Sahib, Amritsar, and will prevent infringement of its rights. SGPC also hosts audio of Gurbani on its website. This does not mean anyone can download and broadcast it as their own. PTC has those rights. PTC has no issue if anyone shares PTC’s Facebook post of Hukamnama daily. It’s available worldwide for anyone to share. But nobody should attempt to steal audio and video and broadcast as their own.”
He held that neither SGPC nor PTC hold copyright to Hukamnama if anyone puts it up in their own font/text and audio.
“We only have rights over Gurbani which is rendered inside Sri Darbar Sahib,” he added.
Asked if PTC could object if somebody takes audio feed from SGPC website, he said, “We have exclusive copyrights to broadcast and we will have a problem because it is a commercial agreement we have signed with SGPC and we broadcast it worldwide and we pay the SGPC.”
Narayan said their objection was to a commercial website or newspapers who have monetized it by attracting traffic to their sites and pages. However, Gazi said none of the content on their FB page was monetized.
SGPC Contract with G Next Media Private Ltd
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) had given “sole, exclusive, absolute and full worldwide broadcasting rights” of gurbani from the Darbar Sahib to G Next Media Private Limited, the company that owns PTC channels, in lieu of annual payment of Rs 1 crore with 10% increase every year. Signed on July 24, 2012, the agreement is “irrevocable” for its entire duration of 11 years. The SGPC is supposed to utilise the money under “education fund.”
The certified copies of the agreement were procured by Sikh activist and Lok Bhalai Insaaf Welfare Society head Baldev Singh Sirsa through an right to information (RTI) application from the SGPC in 2015. Then SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar signed the agreement as he was authorised by the executive on July 21, 2012. From G Next Media, Rabindra Narayan, signed the agreement as the director of the company.
Through the agreement SGPC undertook “to honour this agreement through its present and future office-bearers, along with any of the existing and future committees or sub-committees or any authorities that are or may be authorised to deal with the matter”.
These rights also include telecasting or broadcasting through technologies which may emerge with time. The agreement reads that the company has “all rights to record, broadcast, telecast, webcast, stream or reproduce live or recorded audio-visual recitation of Gurbani Kirtan from Darbar Sahib to the whole world or any part thereof for free to air or subscription-based…”
The agreement also permits G Next to assign and transfer the rights in favour of any sister concern/subsidiary company/joint venture. The agreement also mandates that the company would not telecast any advertisements during the live telecast and at least five minutes before or after the telecast. Those view the telecast regularly vouch that this condition has never been violated by the channel.
Cash in
ETC Networks (agreement signed September 15, 2000)
Rs 2.10 crore
Rs 50 lakh per year from 2001-02 onwards
10% of gross ad revenue immediately before and after gurbani but ads should not be sacrilege and not hurting sentiments of Sikhs.
G Next Media
Rs 1 crore annually from 2012-13 onwards, with 10% annual increase
No ads 5 minutes before or after gurbani telecast
To provide dedicated time slot to cover news and happenings related to Sikhism