The one-month ban on LIVE India—the first Indian news channel to be banned by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting—for airing a fake sting operation has come in for criticism from the broadcasting industry. The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) on Friday said it “unequivocally condemns any attempt by anyone to fabricate news and to attempt to gain popularity at the cost of journalistic integrity” but called the ban as the “latest in a series of Government interventions in media content in the recent past, including several cases of suspension of licensed TV channels”.The NBA clarified that sting operations are “not wrong in principle” and asked “how and by what process it was determined that there was an offence; and on what basis the penalty was determined”. Government intervention in news content without a transparent, codified process and basis is nothing short of censorship, and a threat to the freedom of the press, said NBA in its statement. “While I do agree that there is a need for an internal regulatory mechanism to check such things and also an urgent need to evolve a code of conduct, I am also worried about the ban on the concerned channel. While it is fair enough to take legal action on it, the one-month long ban may be a little arbitrary. After all, a newspaper is not banned from publishing because of one wrong story,” said Rajdeep Sardesai, CEO CNN IBN. Naresh Chahal, Director Finance wing, Indian Broadcasters Federation, said this is the first time a news channel has made a mistake of this sort. “Over the last 10 years, news channels have been doing an excellent job. One channel made a mistake and the law is taking its own course. Sting operations, however, are our right and help expose corruption in a big way. Though I agree that there is need to balance the public interest bit with the privacy of a person and self-regulation is a need,” he said.
