Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, April 23: The Centre on Saturday voiced serious worry about the content broadcast by private television channels in recent months, particularly about the violence in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri neighbourhood and the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
The government has also warned these networks not to carry ‘unauthentic, misleading, sensational, or provocative content.’
“It has, however, been found that in the recent past several Satellite TV channels have carried out coverage of events and incidents in a manner which appears to be unauthentic, misleading, sensational and using socially unacceptable language and remarks, offending good taste and decency, and obscene and defamatory and having communal overtones, all of which appear to be violative of the Programme Code and infringement of the provisions of sub-section (2) of Section 20 of the aforementioned Act,” the I&B ministry said in its advisory.
The Centre referenced media coverage of recent communal violence in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti.
The Centre expressed strong opposition to “provocative headlines and videos of violence that may incite communal hatred among the communities and disrupt peace and law & order”
The channels have also been accused of sabotaging the investigation by airing “scandalous and unverified footage of a certain community, thus exacerbating communal tensions.”
The Centre further said,”It was also observed that in the news, some of channels broadcast debates having unparliamentary, provocative and socially unacceptable language, communal remarks and derogatory references which may have a negative psychological impact on viewers and may also incite communal disharmony and disturb the peace at large.”
According to the Centre, several journalists and news anchors used false and exaggerated claims in order to agitate the audience.
