Ban on NDTV India put on hold

After facing all-round flak, the government on Monday put on hold the one-day ban on Hindi news channel NDTV India, even as the NDTV media group moved the Supreme Court to challenge the legality of the gag order.

"The one-day ban on NDTV's Hindi channel has been put on hold by Information and Broadcasting Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu," official sources said.

The decision to put on hold the ban came after NDTV promoter Prannoy Roy met Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, sources said.

Sources said that Roy requested the minister to review the order and put the execution of the order on hold till a final decision is taken.

According to sources, Roy also told Naidu that their view point was not appreciated in the right perspective, sources said.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Thursday directed the news channel to go off air from the midnight of November 8 to midnight of November 9 for allegedly breaching cable TV norms in its coverage of the January 2 terror attack on the Pathankot Indian Air Force base in Punjab.

The media group earlier in a BSE filing said it had filed an application in the Supreme Court to challenge "the constitutional validity of the (government) order and the provisions of law pursuant to which the said order has purportedly been passed".

The petition challenging the government order is listed for hearing as a mentioning matter on Tuesday.

--IANS

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