The Information, Communication, Post and Technology Authority held a press conference on Mongolian cable TV channels on Tuesday.

The Communication Regulatory Commission conducted inspections among 42 cable television channels on January 11th. The inspections were conducted jointly with the Information, Communication, Post and Technology Authority, the Communication Regulatory Commission, the Authority for Fair Competition and Consumer Protection (AFCCP) and the General Police Department. The Authorities took the decision to close 21 cable television channels based on the results of the inspection.

According to law these cable television channels should have been closed or suspended, instead they were given warnings to amend their failures until March 1st.

During the press conference officials of the authorities warned to the cable television authorities if there are no changes and corrective actions taken for the failures by March 1st, the channels will be closed down or activities suspended.

Officials refused to announce the 21 cable television channels. The conclusion of the inspection is based on the record of violations of law as follows: violating copyrights law, airing illegal advertisements, or airing programs with pornographic or criminal content.

The inspectors also took into consideration whether the televisions main programs take up 80 percent of the total programming for a week.

Currently 44 cable television channels are operating in the City, 21 out of these failed during the inspections. There are a further 40 channels that have been granted rights and want to have a license said B.Balgansuren, the Chief of Communication Regulatory Commission.