Govt. Calls for Caution While Covering Terror Attacks, Conflicts

Issuing a fresh advisory to media houses, the Centre on Wednesday urged the electronic media to exercise caution and restraint while covering terror attacks and conflicts.

In a statement, Ministry for Information and Broadcasting Ministry said: “Government of India has advised electronic media to exercise caution while providing coverage to the incidents of terrorist attacks.”

The fresh guidelines are in continuation of earlier directives issued by the Ministry on November 27, 2008 and December 3, 2008.

In the said directive, TV channels were asked to exercise caution while providing coverage to the incidents to avoid any adverse impact on rescue operations.

Noting the move by some TV channels to arrange and telecast interviews with terrorists and terrorist groups, the statement said such “coverage can cause confusion amongst domestic and international audiences.”

It added that the interviews provide terrorists with a platform to justify their nefarious activities and “put forward their distorted views to a wide audience.”

While saying that such coverage could jeopardize national security, the statement said the issue has been under examination of Information and Broadcasting Ministry and in the Home Ministry.

“In the interests of national security and on the advice of Ministry of Home Affairs, the media is hereby advised to avoid giving undue coverage to terrorists and terrorist groups which may help them to advance their political agenda,” the ministry said.

“Such coverage would amount to gross violation of the provisions of the Programme Code contained in the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 and Rules framed there under,” it added.

(Based on Media Reports)