Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday warned the news channels in India to take a lesson from the central government’s proposed ban on NDTV India for a day.
Kejriwal said the decision was a reminder to other news channels that they too would face a shut down if they refused to eulogise Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
His tweet said, “Listen to me all you channels. Your channels too will be closed if you don’t continue to worship Modi ji.”
Kejriwal’s former colleague and renowned Supreme Court lawyer, Prashant Bhushan dubbed the decision a ‘serious attack’ on media and free speech.
He said, “Govt orders shutdown of NDTV for Pathankot coverage while it tomtoms surgical strikes!This is the most serious attack on media & free speech.”
In a hugely controversial decision, the Centre’s Narendra Modi government on Thursday had recommended taking news channel NDTV India off air for a day for allegedly revealing “strategically-sensitive” details during the coverage of the Pathankot terrorist attack earlier this year.
An Inter-ministerial committee of the I and B ministry made the recommendations.
The ministry, according to PTI, will now ask the channel NDTV India to be taken off air for a day on 9 November, according to sources, in what would be the first order against a broadcaster over its coverage of terrorist attacks.
Efforts to reach the channel for its comments could not fructify.
The matter pertains to the coverage of the Pathankot terror attack by the channel where the committee felt that “such crucial information” could have been readily picked by terrorist handlers and had the potential to “cause massive harm not only to the national security, but also to lives of civilians and defence personnel.”
Courtesy: Janata ka Reporter