Government to assess news channels' coverage of Udhampur attack

NEW DELHI: The government will assess the manner in which the attack yesterday in Udhampur was covered by news channels after many of them, including public broadcaster Doordarshan News, were found to have violated norms in their coverage of the Gurdaspur terror attack.

Sources said that Information and Broadcasting Ministry officials would examine the way in which news broadcasters have covered yesterday's attack and whether it was in line with the norms.

"There had been some violations on an earlier occasion. The ministry will assess whether norms were followed on this occasion," a senior official said.

Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC), a department under the ministry which monitors around 600 channels, also submits reports related to the coverage of important events, sources added.

Earlier, after observing that some channels had violated norms in covering the terror attack last month in Dinangar near Gurdaspur in Punjab, the ministry had issued an advisory asking them to refrain from live coverage of any anti-terrorist operation, and restrict coverage to periodic briefings by designated officers.

However, the ministry did not have to issue any such advisory in the case of the Udhampur attack in Jammu and Kashmir, indicating that many broadcasters had emerged wiser after the previous incident.