The Information and Broadcasting Ministry on Friday suspended the broadcast of two Kerala-based news channels for 48 hours over their coverage of the violence in northeast Delhi, saying such reportage could enhance communal disharmony.
The two channels – Media One and Asianet News TV – wereearlier issued a show cause notice and after they filed their replies, theministry found them to be in violation of the Programme Code prescribed underthe Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995.
The ministry ordered prohibition of transmission orre-transmission of Media One and Asianet News TV for 48 hours on any platformthroughout India with effect from 19:30 hrs on March 6 to 19:30 hrs March 8.The orders issued to the two channels cited theinstances of reporting which were in contravention with the rules and statedthat such reporting could “enhance the communal disharmony” acrossthe country when the situation is “highly volatile”.