New Delhi: As per a new rule approved by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry of India, TV channels will be barred from airing live coverage of anti-terrorist operations by security forces. Broadcasters will from now on be restricted to reporting periodic briefings by designated officers.
Officials say, a new clause will be added to the program code of the Cable Television Network Rules that says that no program should be carried in the cable service that contains live coverage of anti-terrorist operation by security forces, wherein media coverage shall be restricted to periodic briefing by any officer designated by the appropriate government, till such operation concludes.
The new rule has been approved and likely to be notified by the government soon. I&B Secretary Bimal Julka confirmed that an amendment in the rules has been incorporated in the Cable TV Networks Rules, as per the advice of the MHA. The Ministry of Home Affairs had earlier asked the I&B Ministry to ensure that security operations are not covered live by the media.
The officials said the I&B Ministry had earlier written to the MHA asking what should be the definition of the term anti-terrorist operation in order to make changes in the rules. It has been decided that anti-terrorist operation means such operation undertaken to bring terrorists to justice, which includes all engagements involving justifiable use of force between security forces and terrorists, they said.
The move to ban live coverage of terror operations came after the ministry of home affairs (MHA) expressed concern over the coverage of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks that unwittingly gave terrorists a blow-by-blow account of the tactics employed by security forces. In January this year, while delivering the first Justice J S Verma Memorial Lecture, I&B Minister Arun Jaitley had said “Our security agencies and the Ministry of Defence are clearly of the view that this cannot be allowed.
TOI reports that in the uproar after 26/11, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had drafted a law to ban such coverage but the attempt to bring the legislation was nixed by PM Manmohan Singh.
The live coverage by some TV channels of the anti- militant operations in J&K’s Kathua district on March 20, had also prompted the I&B Ministry to issue an advisory asking broadcasters to not air live such operations to avoid any adverse impact on the exercise.
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