Broadbandindia Magazine

With visual media coming under attack for its coverage of Mumbai terror attacks, Indian news broadcasters have produced a set of rules on how to cover such   events. Under the six-point `self requlatory’ guidelines framed by the umbrella body NBA (News Broadcasters Association), the channels shouldn’t be telecasting details of identity, number and status of hostages. Nor should they provide information of pending rescue operations or details on the number of security personnel involved or the methods employed by them.

No live contact

The News Broadcasting Standards Disputes Redressal Authority, constituted by the NBA, said television TV channels should avoid any “live contact with the   victims or security personnel or other technical personnel involved or the perpetrators during the course of any incident.”

The Authority Chairman Justice JS Verma also said media should avoid “unnecessary repeated or continuous broadcast of archival footage that may tend to re-agitate the mind of the viewers. Archival footage, if shown, should clearly indicate ‘file’ and the date and time should be given where feasible.”The Authority said “no live reporting should be made that facilitates publicity of any terrorist or militant outfit or its ideology or tends to evoke sympathy for the perpetrators or glamourises them or their cause or advances the illegal agenda or objectives of the perpetrators.”

Treat dead with dignity

The dead should also be treated with dignity and their visuals should not be shown. Special care should be taken in the broadcast of any distressing visuals and graphics showing grief and emotional scenes of victims and relatives which could cause distress to children and families. At the outset, the Authority said all telecast of news relating to armed conflict, internal disturbance, communal violence, public disorder, crime and other similar situations should be tested on the touchstone of ‘public interest’. Furthermore, the media had the responsibility to disseminate information which was factually accurate and objective.

Guidelines not exhaustive

Noting that these were broad guidelines and were not meant to be exhaustive, Justice Verma urged the channels not to comment individually on them as these  had been drawn up at their initiative. However, he said in reply to questions that he could not prevent anyone from speaking if he so wished. He urged the media to “keep your conduct and do not fall into traps.” He said in reply to questions that nothing should be telecast which hampers the operation of justice. When it was pointed out that similar guidelines had been submitted to the Delhi High Court and the Government had also drawn up its own Self-Regulations Guidelines, he said all these would generally be in tune with each other.

Too early to act against channels

Replying to a question on whether action was being taken by the Authority against any channel vis-a-vis coverage of Mumbai terror attacks, Verma said, “It is too early and the media should give the Authority some more time.” Asked to specify details, he said, “wait and watch.” He said similar guidelines had also been issued in 1997 but had to be revised as some channels differed with the earlier guidelines. He also pointed out that an advisory had been issued by the Authority on 27 November, a day after the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

During a meeting convened by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting (I&B) and External Affairs on 10 December when he reprimanded the channels for their continuing broadcasts of the Mumbai terror attacks, the NBA had informed him that it was working on an Emergency News Protocol.

Justice Verma, a former Chief Justice of India and former Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, was accompanied at the press meet by Professor Deepankar Gupta of the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Annie Joseph of the NBA. Verma said he had been working upon drawing up the guidelines for telecast of news relating to sensitive matters for some time but the tragic episode of the Mumbai terror attack made it extremely urgent that such guidelines be immediately circulated at least in relation to episodes akin to the Mumbai terror attack.

Mumbai terror coverage alarmed Govt.

Clearly alarmed by the cascading effect of what it terms as the unending coverage of the Mumbai terror attacks, the Government of India has constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) to look into the specific violations of Programme and Advertisement Codes by the satellite channels at national level and to   recommend action against them for such violation. Orders for constitution of the State and District Level Monitoring Committees have been issued in order to keep a close watch on content carried by the local cable TV channels at district or State level.

“As per the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 and rules framed thereunder, District Magistrate, Sub Divisional Magistrate or Police Commissioner have been designated as authorized officers who can immediately take action against the local cable TV channels in case of violation. As separate committees/authorities take cognisance of complaints against National or local TV channels as the case may be, complaints do not have to be routed from District to State to National level before action is taken and therefore, there is no additional time factor involved,” Anand Sharma, Minister of State for External Affairs and   Information & Broadcasting, told Rajya Sabha.

Standing Media Consultative Committee

The I & B Ministry has announced the setting up of a Standing Media Consultative Committee to be chaired by the Secretary, I&B. The committee will have representatives of key ministries, NBA and Editor’s Guild as members. A training programme is being introduced in consultation with the Ministries of Home and Defence for media persons on how to cover crisis situations, without exposing themselves to risks, added Mr Sharma. A mechanism is being developed through which official media briefings will be held and authorised video footage will be supplied to broadcasters during crisis situations. The Minister also welcomed the   news coverage guidelines for crisis situations formulated by NBA.

Channels rubbish authorized feed idea

Anxious broadcasters have raised fears about the I&B ministry’s proposal to make it mandatory upon them to carry authorized video footage during a designated emergency situation. While some members of the industry feels that this is tantamount to a gag order, others say “pre-censored footage” would badly erode the credibility of the Indian media. The common refrain of channels was that since the NBA had recently released a set of guidelines for emergency situations, the government should wait to see how the selfregulation mechanism works before forcing down a set of rules down everyone’s throat. NBA president and TV Today Network executive director and CEO G Krishnan said, “Self regulation is the best form of regulation. It is best left to news channels to ensure that the model they   chose for themselves works; rather than be regulated by others.”

Added Chintamani Rao, Times Now CEO, “The Mumbai attacks were unprecedented for broadcasters and the government. What we both need is an emergency protocol. What is required is proper briefing and a proper information flow so that people get correct and relevant information that they need.” A channel representative was vehement in his distrust of the government’s motives, saying what it was proposing was just a mechanism to control the media. He said, “This is just gagging the media.

Move to throttle the media

The government wants to throttle the media. They should stick to controlling Doordarshan.” India TV boss Rajat Sharma said, “Government controlled information, even in an emergency situation, has the danger of leading to rumour mongering and speculation. The people may not trust media reports if they are based only on authorised information and ‘pre-censored footage.’ That’s why, keeping in mind the credibility of media reports in such situations and overall national interest, both   the government and the media have agreed to give first preference to self regulation. This should stay.” Industry representatives also questioned the technical expertise of the government. “Is the government equipped to handle shooting real time footage, editing it and then handing to the TV channels, when it took the government machinery 9 hours to get the NSG to Mumbai,” a channel representative said.