Govt calls out TV channels on ‘distasteful’ reporting on accidents, deaths

TV channels’ reporting on certain cases of accidents, deaths and violence in India was “distasteful” and “sensational” and can impact the psychology of children, the Centre said on Monday. This is an issue of invasion of privacy and could be maligning and defamatory, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) said in an advisory.

“The ministry has observed that over the last few months, several television channels including mainstream channels have reported incidents of accidents, deaths, and violence including violence against women, children and elderly in manners which grossly compromised on ‘good taste and decency’, and were quite unpalatable to the eyes and ears of a common viewer,” it said.

“The manner of reporting such incidents is distasteful, heart-wrenching, distressful, indignifying, sensational, thereby offending good taste and decency. Such reporting also has an adverse psychological impact on the children. There is also a crucial issue of invasion of privacy which could be potentially maligning and defamatory,” it added.

The many examples of infringements of such reports include a telecast on December 30 “showing the distressing images and videos of a cricketer injured in an accident, without blurring”, pointing towards the accident of Rishabh Pant. The advisory talks about another telecast on August 28, showing “disturbing footage” of a man dragging a dead body and also “focusing on the face of the victim with blood splattered around”.

Other examples cited by the ministry include the June 4 telecast of “distressing gory images of the dead body of a Punjabi singer without blurring”, referring to the reporting of the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala.

The ministry said it was a matter of grave concern and advised the TV channels to follow the guidelines laid under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995.

“All private television channels are strongly advised to attune their systems and practices of reporting incidents of crime, accidents and violence, including death in conformity with the Programme Code,” it said.