NEW DELHI: Developing cold feet in the face of a hot reaction from the media, the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting decided to “put on hold” its one-day ban on the Hindi channel NDTV India for allegedly broadcasting information useful to the terrorists who attacked the Pathankot airbase.
NDTV India has asked for a review of the Inter-Ministerial Committee’s order pulling it off the air on November 9, and officials said the decision has now been put on hold till the appeal is heard and disposed.Sources said NDTV co-chairman Prannoy Roy met Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday and argued that NDTV’s perspective on the matter “was perhaps not fully and adequately appreciated”.
Officials said Naidu agreed to stay the ban order. It is learnt that Naidu took the position that rule 6([1]([p] relating to media coverage of anti-terror operations was incorporated into the broadcasting laws last year only after a series of advisories had been issued to media organisations by the UPA government.
The government stepped back from the ban after NDTV India decided to moves the Supreme Court against it, and it was likely to come up for hearing on Tuesday. NDTV disclosed the petition in a filing to the stock exchanges in which it said it was challenging the constitutional validity of the government order.
The ban was to be effective from 00.01 hours of November 9, 2016 till 00.01 hrs of November 10, 2016. NDTV’s contention is that the information it broadcast during the Pathankot attack was also aired by other channels and reported by newspapers.
The ban has been widely condemned by journalists and editors with all press councils drawing parallels to the Emergency when basic constitutional rights including the freedom of the press were blatantly violated, the channel said on its website. The Congress hailed the decision to hold back on the ban as a “victory for truth”, and said the “fascist” BJP buckled under the combined might of the media.