New Delhi — The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has issued show-cause notice to three television news channels over coverage of the hanging of 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon.
Official sources said the ministry considered the coverage “inappropriate,” following which the broadcasters have been asked to explain how their coverage does not violate sections of the programming code.
Two of the broadcasters reportedly aired phone-in interviews of underworld figure Chhota Shakeel. The third apparently telecast remarks of Memon’s lawyer.
A unit of the I&B ministry, Electronic Media Monitoring Center, monitors the content of around 600 channels, reported India West..
Memon was hanged in Nagpur jail on July 30, hours after three Supreme Court judges rejected his final appeal. He was convicted in 2007 on charges of funding the Mumbai blasts in 1993.
Meanwhile, the Editors Guild of India has condemned the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for issuing show cause notices to three TV news channels for their coverage related to Yakub Memon hanging and termed the action as “shocking” and called for immediate withdrawal of the notices.
The Guild’s President N. Ravi said in a statement that “it is shocking that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry should have issued notices to ABP News, NDTV and Aaj Tak for their coverage of the Yakub Memon issue under the cable TV regulations.
“Those regulations were never meant to be used to stop the free and vigorous discussion of matters of public interest however disagreeable the content might be to the government,” the statement said.
It said that “viewpoints unacceptable to the government ought not to be penalized on the specious plea that they would incite violence or spread hatred.”
The Guild said that “it is also time for a re-examination of the broadcasting regulations that on the face of it look over-broad and leave room for misuse in violation of the right to Freedom of Expression under Article 19 1(a) of the Constitution.”