TV news: Occult out, ‘public interest’ in

In the new definitive rules for television news channels, restrictions have been imposed on showing superstition or occult., reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Feb 12, 2009, 24:45:01 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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In the new definitive rules for television news channels, restrictions have been imposed on showing superstition or occult. Also “public interest” has been made the driving force for showing sting operations, besides restricting live telecast of distressing content.

Facing criticism for coverage of the Mumbai terror attacks, the News Broadcasters Association (NBA), a body of leading news channels, on Wednesday issued specific dos and don’ts for news channels based on the principle of “public interest” under 10 different categories. National security is an important aspect of the new guidelines.

“There should not be any need for any further regulation,” said former Supreme Court Chief Justice J.S. Verma, who heads the association’s ethics and standards authority that had drafted the regulations. “Self-regulation by the broadcasters, based on these guidelines, will be sufficient,” he added.

The guidelines covering news reportage — approved by editors of leading news channels like NDTV, CNN-IBN, India TV, Aaj Tak and Times Now — would be binding on all members of NBA.

“Viewers will have the choice to complain with the authority if they find content in violation of the regulations,” a NBA spokesperson said. The authority is already examining two complaints against broadcasters.

The comprehensive guidelines following an assurance from government to withdraw the draft Cable Television Network rules aimed at controlling electronic media will, however, have a limited impact. Only 30 news channels (mostly national) — of the total of about 180 — are members of NBA.

“A lot of regional news channels against whom people have lots of complaint are not covered,” said a I&B ministry official, admitting that the association has accepted most of the government’s suggestions on self-regulation.

The only addition in NBA’s regulation is five-point reporting guideline for covering incidents like 26/11. Channels have been advised to use discretion in reporting on operational methods used by perpetrators of serious offices against the state.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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