Blackout looms on channel for terror coverage

Sumi Sukanya Dutta, TT, New Delhi, Nov. 3: Hindi news channel NDTV India is expected to be taken off the air for a day for its allegedly indiscreet coverage of the Pathankot terror attack in January, Union information and broadcasting ministry officials said.

No national news channel has ever been blacked out before as a punishment, they said, and no channel has faced action on this particular ground although the government has repeatedly warned against unrestrained coverage of terror attacks.

But today, an inter-ministerial panel that looks into violations of the broadcasting code by television channels recommended that NDTV India be stopped from broadcasting on November 9.

Officials said that minister Venkaiah Naidu's office was virtually certain to approve the suggestion and a formal order was likely in a day or two.

The panel said the broadcaster had "revealed such crucial information that could have been readily picked by terrorist handlers and had the potential to cause massive harm not only to national security, but also to lives of civilians and defence personnel".

It added that the committee had initially considered a 30-day ban but later decided this would be "very harsh".

An email query to NDTV group editor Sonia Singh, seeking her response, had remained unanswered till tonight.

Pakistan-based militants had attacked the Pathankot airbase in Punjab on January 2, killing half a dozen defence personnel during a nearly daylong standoff. The panel says NDTV India's coverage lacked restraint and responsibility and revealed strategically sensitive details in violation of Rule 6(1)(p) of the programme code.

Its note says: "The channel also revealed information on the ammunition stockpiled in the airbase, MiGs, fighter planes, rocket launchers, mortars, helicopters, fuel tanks, among others, which was likely to be used by the terrorists or their handlers to cause massive harm."

In April last year, the government had amended the Cable Television Networks Rules to warn channels against telecasting live coverage of anti-terror operations in "the interest of public security".

According to the National Media Monitoring Centre, an agency that records all the TV broadcasts in the country round the clock, all the channels apart from NDTV India had deferred telecast of their live footage from Pathankot. The agency's report led to the inter-ministerial panel taking the matter up, with the channel given an opportunity to argue its case, sources said.

A ministry official said the April 2015 amendment to the rules had been prompted by a home ministry nudge following a militant attack on a police station in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir, a month earlier. Many channels had broadcast the army operation live.

Still, many channels again resorted to live coverage when, in July 2015, terrorists attacked a police station in Gurdaspur, Punjab.

At subsequent meetings, representatives of the News Broadcasters Association (NBA), a private industry body, were repeatedly reminded about the new provisions and warned of punishment in case of violations.

The government had first asked news channels to practise restraint while reporting terror strikes following the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, whose extensive live coverage had drawn criticism. The NBA had then released a set of guidelines in an attempt at self-regulation.

Regional news channels have previously been ordered off the air on various charges, such as promoting superstition or incorrect reportage.