Broadcasters seek withdrawal of notices to channels

Broadcasters today asked the government to withdraw its show cause notices to three TV channels for their coverage related to Yakub Memon's hanging, saying the matter should instead be referred to the News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA).
In a statement released here, the News Broadcasting Authority (NBA) said that since the government believes in an independent media, the matter should be referred to NBSA which is a self-regulatory mechanism set up by news channels.
The government said violations of the Programming Code are reported by Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC) and when they are of a serious nature, show cause notices are issued.

"EMMC reports violations by channels and when they are felt to be of a serious nature, show cause notices are issued," Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said.
Meanwhile NBA, a body comprising leading TV news channels, said that it is "deeply concerned" at the show cause notices issued to NDTV 24x7/NDTV India, Aajtak and ABP News.
The notices, it said, were reportedly issued for having aired phone interviews of Chhota Shakeel on two channels, which "according to the Ministry cast aspersions against the integrity of the President on India and the judiciary and can incite violence and lead to law and order problems".

"Since the present government has gone on record to state that it believes the media should be independent, without any government interference and it should self regulate itself, NBA urges the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to withdraw the show cause notices issued and refer them to the New Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA), which would consider them under its regulations," the NBA said.

The NBSA is a self regulatory mechanism set up by the news broadcasting industry with former Supreme Court judge R V Raveendran as its chairperson.
Unhappy with the coverage related to the hanging of Memon by the three channels, the I&B Ministry issued show-cause notice to them, asking why action should not be taken against them.

Sources said that there was a view in the ministry that the three channels had covered the happening in such a way that an impression appeared to be created that a person had been sentenced because he belonged to a particular community, while others can get away with it.
The Ministry had felt that some parts of the coverage by these news channels were inappropriate following which they have been asked to explain how their coverage does not violate the sections of the Programme Code.