I&B ministry asks private TV channels not to malign individuals, groups

New Delhi: The ministry of information and broadcasting has issued an advisory to private satellite television channels asking them to broadcast content which adhere to Programme and Advertising Codes, and thus should not contain “anything obscene, defamatory, deliberate, false and suggestive innuendos and half truths.”

The directive comes in the wake of the Delhi High Court asking the ministry to file a status report by 15 October on measures taken to restrain the media following actor Rakul Preet Singh’s plea indicating harassment based on “conjectures”.

Singh has filed a petition saying that based on unsubstantiated allegations, defamatory programmes are being run in the media against her, causing irreparable injury and harm.

The actor was named in the recent drug scam involving other Bollywood celebrities including Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan, and Shraddha Kapoor.

The ministry has strictly advised to not carry any programme that criticises, maligns or slanders any individual in person or groups, segments of social, public and moral life of the country.

“It is hoped that media houses and television channels would show restraint in their reporting and abide by the provisions of the Programme Code as also the various guidelines, both statutory and self-regulatory, while making any report in relation to the petitioner,” the Delhi High Court order said.

Apart from the ministry, Justin Navin Chawla has ordered the Press Council of India and News Broadcasters Association to file the status report on Singh’s petition by the next date of hearing, which is 15 October.

Media reportage has been under the scanner for some time now with Chief Justice SA Bobde recently saying that freedom of speech is among the most-abused liberties in a case related to media reportage on the Tablighi Jamaat gathering at a Delhi mosque in violation of coronavirus restrictions.