New Delhi: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Saturday rapped the private news channels for hosting televisions debates and allowing participants to air communally provocative and derogatory remarks.
Citing specific instances of “hyberbolic” statements by news anchors and “scandalous headlines/taglines” while reporting on the Ukraine-Russia conflict and disrupting the investigation process into the incidents in northwest Delhi by airing unverified CCTV footage, the centre issued an advisory to the news channels asking them to abide by the programme code laid down by the relevant laws.
The advisory with effect immediately instructed the broadcasting houses to refrain from publishing and transmitting any content which is violative of the provisions of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 and the rules thereunder. Section 6 of the Programme Code under the Act states that “no programme should be carried in the cable service which offends against good taste or decency; contains criticism of friendly countries; contains attack on religions or communities or visuals or words contemptuous of religious groups or which promote communal attitudes; contains anything, obscene, defamatory, deliberate, false and suggestive innuendos and half truths”.”One channel aired fabricated pictures claiming to be the proof of the upcoming nuclear attack on Ukraine. This completely speculative news story seems to be intending to misguide the viewers and arouse psychological upheavals inside them,” the advisory noted.
Speaking in regards to Delhi riots, it rapped a news channel that repeatedly played a video clipping of a man belonging to a specific community carrying a sword, and claims made by another that the violence targeting the religious procession was pre-planned.