KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has criticized the central government for putting a one-day ban on NDTV India and said it showed that an “emergency-like situation” prevailed in the country.
“NDTV ban is shocking. If the government had issues with the Pathankot coverage, there are provisions available. But a ban shows an Emergency-like attitude,” Ms Banerjee said in a statement.
An inter-ministerial panel yesterday concluded that NDTV India had allegedly revealed crucial and “strategically sensitive” information when the terror attack on Pathankot’s Air Force base was being carried out.
The Information and Broadcasting ministry, while invoking the powers under the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act, said it “orders to prohibit the transmission or re-transmission of NDTV India channel for one day on any platform throughout India with effect from 00:01 hrs on 9th November,2016 till 00:01 hrs of 10th November, 2016”.
This is the first ever such order against a TV channel over its coverage of a terror attack, the norms regarding which were notified last year.
In its reply, NDTV India said that it was a case of “subjective interpretation” and that most of the information they had put out was already in the public domain in print, electronic and social media.
PTI