Calling the one-day ban on NDTV India too lenient, Subhash Chandra, Chairman of Essel Group and Zee Media, said that an indefinite or lifetime ban should have been imposed for playing with the nation’s security.
The news channel was ordered to go off air for 24 hours for revealing “strategically sensitive” information during its coverage of the Pathankot. The move was strongly condemned by the journalist community and the Opposition, with many even calling it an Emergency-like condition.
Chandra, who’s also a Rajya Sabha MP, added that if the matter goes to court, the channel will be berated there as well.
He also lashed out on people comparing the situation to the Emergency, lauding the government’s recent order as the right move.
Taking his attack on the channel to a personal level, he alleged that during the UPA tenure, the government was considering slapping a ban on his channel Zee and no one stood up in protest of that, including the Editors Guild.
Condemning the NDTV ban, the Editors Guild of India had issued a statement in which it vehemently opposed the move by the Central government.
NDTV in its rebuttal had said that it “revealed” nothing more than what was already out in the newspapers and was being covered by other channels as well.
Following the NDTV ban, the government has also issued a similar diktat for News Time Assam and Care World TV channels. An I&B ministry order dated 2 November has directed the Assam news channel to go off air on 9 November for allegedly violating programming guidelines multiple times.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)