New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Monday issued an advisory to all television channels against reporting incidents of accidents, deaths, and violence, including violence against women, children and elderly in manners that grossly compromise on “good taste and decency” and impacts small children. The advisory has been issued after several instances of lack of discretion by television channels were noticed by the Ministry.
The ministry cited the accident involving cricketer Rishabh Pant which the ministry said, “showed the distressing images and videos of a cricketer injured in an accident, without blurring”.
The Ministry has 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.”
It has further highlighted that the manner of reporting such incidents was distasteful and distressing for the audience. It also added that there was also a crucial issue of invasion of privacy which could be potentially maligning and defamatory, the advisory has underlined.
-IANS