The one-day ban on NDTV’s Hindi channel, widely condemned, has been put on hold by Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu. The decision comes after the Supreme Court agreed to hear NDTV’s application for a stay on the ban.
About NDTV :
New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV) is an Indian television media company founded in 1988 by husband and wife Prannoy Royand Radhika Roy. NDTV is an acronym for the original name of the company, New Delhi Television.
Channels of NDTV Group are:
- NDTV 24×7– 24-hour English news channel.
- NDTV India– Non-stop Hindi news channel.
- NDTV Profit– Business news channel.
- NDTV Good Times– Lifestyle channel.
- ATN NDTV 24×7
- NDTV Worldwide
- NDTV Convergence – Website, Mobile Applications
- Indianroots– Indian Ethnic e-commerce venture.
On November 4 the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting ordered the channel to go off air on November 9 for it had divulged strategically sensitive details while covering January’s deadly attack on the Pathankot air base.
- New Delhi Television is, and has been for more than a quarter century, a pioneer in India’s news television. Founded in 1988 by Radhika Roy and Prannoy Roy, NDTV is today the most watched and the most credible and respected news and lifestyle network in India.
- From the path-breaking “The World This Week” the first private news on Doordarshan “The News Tonight”, producing India’s first 24-hour news channel “Star News” and the country’s first ever 2-in-1 channel Profit-Prime, NDTV has been at the forefront of every single news revolution.
- NDTV is most proud of how its work impacts the real world and how it is using its powerful reach to campaign for and with the people of India.
- 27 years of dedicated and innovative programming has brought into focus a number of social issues ranging from the 7 Wonders of India;
- Save Our Tigers;
- the Greenathon and Jeene ki Asha to Marks for Sports;
- Support My School;
- the University Sports Championships and the most recent Health4U campaigns on Heart Care,
- Diabetes and Cancer;
- Banega Swachch India,
- The Road to Safety and
- What’s your Choice? Campaigns.
About the Ban :
The Indian government ordered the Hindi language news channel to be taken off air for a day as a penalty for its coverage of an attack on Indian soldiers in January and officials had said the channel would go off air on Wednesday.
- The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said NDTV Hindi revealed strategically sensitive details during the deadly attack on the Pathankot airbase, allegedly carried out by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed group.
- The Editors’ Guild of India and opposition politicians condemned the ban, saying it was an infringement on press freedom and demanded the decision be reversed immediately.
- The order against NDTV India was the first such ban on a television station for its reporting of an attack on the state.
- India routinely asks entertainment TV channels to censor words it deems too offensive for local audiences.
- In a report on its website, NDTV has said that it refuted the allegations and “pointed out that other channels and newspapers reported the same information”. The ban is supposed to be implemented from 00:01 hrs on November 9, 2016 till 00:01 hrs of November 10, 2016.
- It is noted that this is the first ever such order against a TV channel over its coverage of a terror attack, the norms regarding which were notified in 2015. The Editors’ Guild has condemned the ban and demanded that the decision be withdrawn immediately, saying it was reminiscent of the emergency period