Date:21/09/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/09/21/stories/2007092162961700.htm

Front Page

‘Live India’ channel banned for a month

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: ‘Live India’, the channel which has been in the dock for airing a fake sting operation, has been banned for a month from Thursday.

The ban has been imposed by Information and Broadcasting Ministry by invoking the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act, 1995.

The decision comes about a week after the channel managers responded on September 14 to the Ministry’s show-cause notice asking why its permission to broadcast should not be suspended/revoked. The matter was referred to an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC).

The Ministry said the sting operation was “defamatory, deliberate, false and contained suggestive innuendos and half-truths; incited violence and contained content against maintenance of law and order.” Further, according to the statement, the sting operation “criticised, maligned and slandered an individual in person and it denigrated children.”

The IMC was also of the view that it was irresponsible of the channel to have aired the fake sting operation “without exercise of due diligence in preliminary verification of the facts of the case.”

In the order, the Ministry refers to the channel as ‘Janmat’ as its decision to rechristen itself as ‘Live India’ does not have ministerial sanction as yet. Apparently, it had only applied for a name change.

Even before it became clear that the sting operation showing a government school teacher of the capital forcing a student into prostitution had been orchestrated, the Ministry had advised ‘Live India’ to remove its new logo from the channel. That advisory was ignored by the channel and on September 13 it was directed to remove the logo. Again, the channel refused to comply with it.

The controversial telecast had led to rioting near the school and the dismissal of the teacher Uma Khurana. She was arrested and then granted bail.