Former Union minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday criticised the Centre for suspending the transmission of two Malayalam news channels – Asianet News TV and Media One – for 48 hours over their coverage of the recent violence in north-east Delhi.
On Friday, the information and broadcasting ministry ordered the suspension of transmission saying that the reports the two channels carried could “enhance communal disharmony”.
Chidambaram , one of the government’s most bitter critics, called the order “an unconstitutional interference with the freedom of the Press”. He also demanded an immediate revocation of the order.
“The Ministry of I&B plays the roles of Prosecutor, Jury and Judge. This is a travesty of justice. All media entities should protest vehemently. The government must scrap the Shut down order forthwith,” he tweeted.
“Shut down order against two TV channels is an unconstitutional interference with the freedom of the Press,” Chidambaram said in another tweet.
In its orders the government said it found Asianet News TV and Media One in violation of the programme code prescribed under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995. The ministry ordered the prohibition of transmission or re-transmission of the channels for 48 hours with effect from 7.30 pm on March 6. According to Rule 6(1)(c) of the Act, no broadcast should contain an attack on religions or communities, or visuals or words contemptuous of religious groups.
The orders to the two channels cited instances of reporting violated the rules.
“While reporting such critical incident, the channel (Asianet News) should have taken utmost care and should have reported it in a balanced way.
Such reporting could enhance the communal disharmony across the country when the situation is highly volatile,” the order on Asianet News TV said.
The channel in its response, said its reports were factual and never intended to attack a religion or a community.
The ministry’s order on Media One also raised questions on the channel’s content, and said that the ministry previously issued advisories that norms should be followed.