Government asks TV channels to refrain from live telecast of terror attack

NEW DELHI: As the battle between terrorists and security forces raged in Dinanagar in Punjab's Gurdaspur district, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry today asked news channels to refrain from live telecast and restrict their coverage to periodic briefings by a designated officer.

In an advisory, the ministry said that as per the Cable Television Networks (Amendment) Rules, 2015, no programme shall be carried in the cable service which contains live coverage of any anti-terrorist operation by security forces and in such cases coverage shall be restricted to periodic briefing by an officer, designated by the appropriate government, till such operation concludes.

The ministry said it had been brought to its notice that as the anti-terrorist operations in Gurdaspur were underway, some news and current affairs TV channels had carried telecast without restricting themselves to periodic briefing by an officer designated to do so.

Informing channels that such telecast is a clear violation of the Cable Television Networks (Amendment) Rules and hence liable for action, the ministry advised broadcasters to desist from any further violation of the rules, in an advisory issued today.