Govt's Advisory To TV Channels Over 'Distressing' Visuals In Reportage Of Rishabh Pant Car Crash, Crime Cases

The ministry also noted airing of footage which included dead bodies of individuals, violence, gore  without blurring the images or taking long shots.

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New Delhi: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued an advisory to the television news channels Monday against reporting incidents of accidents, deaths, and violence including violence against women, children and elderly “in manners which grossly compromises on “good taste and decency”.

The Ministry stated that the advisory was being issued after several instances of lack of discretion by television channels.

The ministry also noted airing of footage which included dead bodies of individuals, violence, gore  without blurring the images or taking long shots. 

“Television channels have shown dead bodies of individuals and images/videos of injured persons with blood splattered around, people, including women, children and elderly being beaten mercilessly in close shots, continuous cries and shrieks of a child being beaten by a teacher, shown repeatedly over several minutes including circling the actions thereby making it even more ghastly, without taking the precaution of blurring the images or showing them from long shots,” it said in the statement. 

“ The manner of reporting such incidents is distasteful and distressing for the audience,” it added. 

In its advisory, the ministry underlined the psychological impact on the audience especially children and invasion of privacy by such reports. 

Television, being a platform usually watched by families in households with people from all cohorts – old aged, middle aged, small children, etc., and with various socio-economic backgrounds, place a certain sense of responsibility and discipline among the broadcasters, which have been enshrined in the Programme Code and the Advertising Code, it said. 

It enlisted several such reports including that of cricketer Rishab Pant’s road accident where either the video or photo was not blurred or the audio was not muted. 

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