I & B Ministry's directive to TV channels

The ministry said in a statement that the National Commission on Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has set directives and a set of protocols to the entire print and electronic media.

These rules ask the media to refrain from publishing the names, pictures, home address, school address and other parameters of their identity of such children who need to be reported upon by the media on account of certain circumstances including difficult circumstances, the statement said.

Disclosures of identity of the children only tend to leave their imprint and affect the social and mental health of the kids in their crucial stage of development, the ministry added.

"All News and Current Affairs TV channels are required to abide by the provisions contained in the Cable Television Networks Rules 1994 and Rule 6(1)(l) thereof provides that no programme should be carried in the cable service which denigrates children," the ministry said.

"Any violation may entail stringent action as per the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, rules promulgated thereunder and the terms and conditions of uplinking and downlinking guidelines," the ministry said in its statement.