MUMBAI: The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has issued a press release that it is concerned with the decision taken by the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MoI&B) to prohibit the transmission or re-transmission of NDTV India channel, a national channel, for a day on any platform throughout India w.e.f 00:01hrs on 9 November 2016 till 00:01hrs of 10 November 2016 ostensibly for the channel’s coverage of the Pathankot terror attack on 2.1.2016 on the ground that the channel gave out sensitive information to the handlers of terrorists.

It is surprising to note that NDTV India has been singled out by the IMC/ MoI&B, when the rest of the media also did cover the terror attack and all such reports were available in the public domain. The IMC and the MoI&B should have seen it from the prism of freedom of the media, which is guaranteed in the constitution and not gone strictly by the regulations under the Cable Act, NBA secretary-general Annie Joseph stated in the release.

It would have been appropriate if the Ministry had referred the alleged violations of NDTV India to the News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA), the independent self regulatory body of the NBA.

In the interest of the freedom of the media, NBA requests the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting to kindly re-consider its decision, the release added.