I&B ministry has acted in 163 cases of communally provocative TV debates, says Anurag Thakur

In the past three years, the Narendra Modi government has taken action in 163 cases where private TV news channels violated the Programme Code, information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur said on Tuesday.

Thakur was replying to questions by Congress MP Adoor Prakash, including if the government had noticed an increase in TV news shows where participants were allowed to make communally provocative and derogatory remarks and if the government had taken action in such cases. Prakash also asked for details of TV channels and debates against which action had been taken.

Thakur pointed out that all programmes aired on private TV channels are required to adhere to the Programme Code laid down in Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994.

“The government has an institutional mechanism for taking action in respect of private TV channels which are found to violate the Programme Code,” he said. “During the last three years and current year, the government has taken action in respect of 163 cases by issuance of advisories, warnings, apology scroll orders and off-air orders.”

On the measures taken by the government, Thakur said his ministry sent an advisory on April 23, 2022 to all private satellite TV channels “to ensure strict compliance with the Programme Code under Cable Television Networks Regulation Act, 1995 and rules framed thereunder”.

The advisory came in the wake of the coverage of the Ukraine war and the communal violence in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri. The advisory said some TV news channels had made “false claims”, were using “scandalous headlines” and offering "fabricated and hyperbolic statements intending to incite audiences" in their coverage of the Ukraine war. On coverage of the Jahangirpuri violence, the advisory said it was “aggravating the communal tensions”.