Govt tells NDTV India to shut down for a day

Unprecedented order slapped on Hindi channel for revealing 'strategic information' during Pathankot attack

The government, in an unprecedented move, has ordered news broadcaster NDTV India to go off air for 24 hours.  The order has been served by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) for the Hindi channel’s coverage on Pathankot terror attack, during which it allegedly reveal ‘strategic information’.

NDTV India received the order on Thursday. According to it, the channel would have to stop broadcasting between 1 pm of 9 November and 1 pm of 10 November.  

According to sources in the I&B ministry, the order was formulated after an inter-ministerial panel suggested that the channel’s coverage of the Pathankot terror attack divulged “strategically sensitive” information.

NDTV is consulting its lawyers to figure out its next move.  The channel may take the legal path to counter the government’s offensive, as it believed it has been cornered for its stance against the government. Shutting down broadcasting could cause loss of revenue of over millions of rupees for NDTV.

On 2 January, 2016, a group of heavily armed terrorists, reportedly belonging to United Jihad Council, attacked an Air Force station at Pathankot, Punjab. The gun battle and the subsequent combing operations, which lasted for days, left six soldiers and six terrorists dead.

According to ministry officials, the reportage by the NDTV India divulged crucial information while the attack was on, which could have been picked by terrorist handlers. The government had earlier served a show-cause notice to the media company, which, in reply, pointed out most of the information that were broadcasted were already on public domain.

New Delhi Television — the company that operates a number of news channels including NDTV 24X7, NDTV Profit, NDTV Prime and NDTV India — has been battling series of litigations against the income tax department.

After being cornered by the tax authorities on demands over transactions that took place during 2004 and 2010, the firm got relief at Delhi high court which turned down several cases against NDTV. The media company, founded by Prannoy and Radhika Roy in 1988 launched NDTV 24X7 — a 24 hours a day new channel — in 2003.