New guidelines, overseen by a former Indian chief justice, were implemented in response to the minute-by-minute coverage of last month’s three-day assault in Mumbai, during which the government temporarily shut TV stations for just under an hour.
Under the “emergency protocol,” broadcasters will now delay live coverage of sensitive incidents and withhold information on security operations. Ministers will still be able to take channels off air, but it will be seen as a “nuclear option.”
TV stations gave audiences a ringside seat to the violence in Mumbai as 10 militants killed 170 people in India’s financial capital. Many channels ran live images of gunmen spraying bullets into crowds of people.
India’s news industry has grown exponentially in recent years, with dozens of 24-hour news stations opening, but some critics say regulation has failed to keep pace.
“It is a failure of self-regulation which by its nature is left up to individuals’ consciences,” said Rajdeep Sardesai, editor in chief of CNN-IBN, an Indian news channel. “We had set a code of conduct up in October but then came Mumbai. The challenge is whether [the new protocol’s] intent can be translated into implementation.”
The News Broadcasters Association managed to stave off the threat of a new government body, headed by a civil servant, to regulate news content in the country. Senior politicians claimed the militants had been able to check counterterrorism measures during the attacks by watching Indian TV.
Senior opposition figures said the live feed of commandos being dropped on to the roof of the Jewish center in Mumbai endangered the success of operations and the safety of hostages as well as security forces.
Another channel, India TV, was criticized by India’s broadcasting ministry for airing an interview with “terrorists,” which the government said was affording a “platform to espouse their cause.”
Arnab Goswani, the editor in chief of Times Now, India’s biggest English-language news channel, which had been accused of adopting a “Fox News, war-mongering stance,” defended broadcasters, saying that criticism had to be seen as part of the “government and media learning how to deal with sensitive issues.”
“Self regulation remains the key. We do not want regulation thrust upon us and we want to protect the media’s independence,” he said. “In a democracy nothing should be left unquestioned.”
The after-effects of the attacks continued across south Asia yesterday as the Indian parliament passed a law allowing police to hold suspects for up to 180 days without charge. Pakistan called in a senior Indian diplomat to protest at alleged violations of its airspace by Indian warplanes. Jets were scrambled to chase off intruders that crossed into Pakistani airspace on Saturday, but Islamabad described the incident as “inadvertent.”
BLOODSHED: North Koreans take extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and sometimes execute their own forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean forces sustained heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August last year. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy quoted a report from Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border. “In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka,
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
Some things might go without saying, but just in case... Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town Web site suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried — for use in making flavored butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply
US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen on Monday met virtually with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) and raised concerns about “malicious cyber activity” carried out by Chinese state-sponsored actors, the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement. The department last month reported that an unspecified number of its computers had been compromised by Chinese hackers in what it called a “major incident” following a breach at contractor BeyondTrust, which provides cybersecurity services. US Congressional aides said no date had been set yet for a requested briefing on the breach, the latest in a serious of cyberattacks
RSS