A day before the Supreme Court was to hear NDTV’s challenge to the government order imposing a one-day ban on its Hindi channel, NDTV India, Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Monday put the order on hold, and gave NDTV Ltd. a chance to present its case once more before an inter-ministerial committee.
Widespread criticism
NDTV had moved the Supreme Court earlier in the day against the ban after a government panel accused it of broadcasting sensitive details of January’s terror attack on the Air Force base in Pathankot.
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The decision of the inter-ministerial committee to impose the one-day ban on the channel, starting at midnight on November 9, provoked widespread criticism both within and outside the country. Reporters without Borders called on the authorities to stop using national security as a pretext for silencing the media.
The Editors Guild’s criticism was the sharpest, invoking the ,Emergency to say: “The decision to take the channel off the air for a day is a direct violation of the freedom of the media and therefore, the citizens of India and amounts to harsh censorship imposed by the government reminiscent of the Emergency. This first-of-its-kind order to impose a blackout has seen the Central government entrust itself with the power to intervene in the functioning of the media and take arbitrary punitive action as and when it does not agree with the coverage.”
The Guild also said the order was unprecedented and that the Centre appeared to have given itself the power "to intervene in the functioning of the media and take arbitrary punitive action as and when it does not agree with the coverage." The organisation, a grouping of the editors of all major newspapers and magazines in the country, said if the government found any media coverage objectionable, it could approach the courts.
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The one-day ban was imposed by the inter-ministerial committee comprising of joint secretaries from Ministry of External Affairs, Home, Defence, Consumer Affairs, Department of Women and Child, Information and Broadcasting and a representative from the Advertising Standards Council of India.
Naidu defends ban
The Opposition too criticised the Government’s assault on free speech. Stung by the remarks of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, and others who had accused the BJP Government of creating Emergency-like situation in the country by restricting freedom of expression, Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu shot back by questioning the credentials of his party which had backed Emergency. Stating that national interest was supreme,he defended the decision to impose a 24 hour ban.
Meanwhile, NDTV’s petition is scheduled to be mentioned before a Bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and N.V. Ramana at 2 p.m. On its website, NDTV has refuted the allegations, pointing out that other channels and newspapers reported the same information.