Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said the ban on Hindi news channel NDTV India is “in the interest of the country’s safety and security.” His comments come days after the I&B Ministry ordered the channel to go off-air for a day on November 9 for violating broadcasting rules during its coverage of the Pathankot attacks.
Under attack from the opposition and from those in the media for imposing a ban on the channel, with many comparing it to the Emergency, Naidu said, “This criticism is ill informed and suggesting a motivated design over the controversy that doesn't exist.” Addressing a press conference in Chennai, the I&B Minister argued that the decision was taken after a committee considered the guidelines set by the UPA government on the broadcasting of terrorist attacks following 26/11.
The minister also pointed out the UPA government had ordered several channels to go off-air in 21 incidents for a period ranging from one day to two months for broadcasting objectionable and obscene content.
He went on to say that NDTV India was found to have violated the broadcasting code and was “unrepentant” about what it had done. Naidu also added that the Hindi channel was found to have made similar violations earlier.
The BJP leader also hit out at Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, who called the ban “shocking and unprecedented.” He said, “The action was in the interest of the country’s security and earlier the Emergency was imposed for a single person’s self-interest. Rahul Gandhi is talking about emergency now, does he know what an emergency is? Bjp knows better what an emergency is.”
While he asserted that the freedom of the press is important, he argued that national security was more important. He said the one-day ban was only a “token for the channel to remember what wrong they have done.”