I&B Ministry slams TV channels for "distasteful & distressing" reporting on violence, accidents & deaths

New Delhi, Jan 9: In a significant development, the ministry of information and broadcasting called out TV channels against "distasteful & distressing" reporting over accidents, deaths and violence including violence against women, children, and the elderly. It also said that these incidents grossly compromise "good taste and decency".

 

This came after several instances of lack of discretion by television channels were noticed by the ministry, it said in a statement on Monday.

 

It said, "television channels have shown dead bodies of individuals and images/videos of injured persons with blood splattered around, people, including women, children and elderly being beaten mercilessly in close shots, continuous cries and shrieks of a child being beaten by a teacher, shown repeatedly over several minutes including circling the actions thereby making it even more ghastly, without taking the precaution of blurring the images or showing them from long shots."

 

The advisory highlighted the impact such reporting has on various audience segments. It said that such reports can also have an adverse psychological impact on children. There is also a crucial issue of invasion of privacy which could be potentially maligning and defamatory, the advisory has underlined.

 

 

"Television, being a platform usually watched by families in households with people from all cohorts – old aged, middle aged, small children, and so on, and with various socio-economic backgrounds, places a certain sense of responsibility and discipline among the broadcasters, which have been enshrined in the Programme Code and the Advertising Code," the statement said.

 

The Ministry also observed that in most cases "the videos are being taken from social media and broadcast without editorial discretion and modifications to ensure compliance and consistency with the Programme Code".

 

Among the list of examples of such recently broadcast content, it included the images and videos of cricketer Rishabh Pant who suffered an horrific accident.