IEP NEW DELHI

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has today issued an advisory to all television channels 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 advisory has been issued after several instances of lack of discretion by television channels were noticed by the Ministry.

The Ministry has said that 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 has further highlighted that the manner of reporting such incidents is distasteful and distressing for the audience.

The advisory has highlighted the impact such reporting has on various audience. It has stated that such reports can also have an adverse psychological impact on the children. There is also a crucial issue of invasion of privacy which could be potentially maligning and defamatory, the advisory has underlined. 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 certain sense of responsibility and discipline among the broadcasters, which have been enshrined in the Programme Code and the Advertising Code.

The Ministry has observed that in most cases the videos are being taken from social media and broadcast without editorial discretion and modifications to ensure compliance and consistency with the Programme Code.

A list of examples of such recently broadcast content is as below:

1.         30.12.2022 showing the distressing images and videos of a cricketer injured in an accident, without blurring.

2.         28.08.2022 showing disturbing footage of a man dragging the dead body of a victim and also focusing on the face of the victim with blood splattered around.

3.         06-07-2022 about a distressing incident in which a teacher can be seen brutally thrashing a 5-year-old boy until he lost consciousness in a coaching classroom in Patna, Bihar. The clip          was played without muting it in which painful cries of the child begging for mercy can be heard and was shown for over 09 minutes.

4.         04-06-2022 showing the distressing gory images of the dead body of a Punjabi singer without blurring.

5.         25-05-2022 showing a disturbing incident of a man brutally beating two minor boys with a stick in Chirang district of Assam. In the video, the man can be seen mercilessly beating boys with sticks.  The clip was played without blurring or muting in which the boys’ painful cries are clearly heard.

6.         16-05-2022 where a woman advocate was brutally assaulted by her neighbor in Bagalkot district of Karnataka, showing continuously without edits.

7.         04-05-2022 showing a man hacking his own sister to death in Rajapalayam, Virudhunagar district of Tamil Nadu.

8.         01-05-2022 about a man being hung upside down from a tree and brutally thrashed with sticks by five people in Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh. 

9.         12-04-2022 about an accident in which distressing visuals of five dead bodies are continuously shown without blurring.

10.       11-04-2022 about an incident where a man can be seen brutally attacking his 84-year-old mother in Kollam, Kerala, dragging his mother through the yard beating and thrashing her mercilessly shown continuously without blurring for approximately 12 minutes.

11.       07-04-2022 about a highly disturbing video of an old man setting his son ablaze in Bengaluru. The unedited footage of the old man lighting a matchstick & throwing it on his son upon which he was engulfed in flames was telecast repeatedly.

12.       22-03-2022 about a video of a 14-year-old minor boy being beaten in Morigaon district of Assam, carried without blurring or muting in which the boy can be heard crying and pleading while being beaten mercilessly.

Raising concern over such broadcast and in view of larger public interest involved and having regard to the nature of audience of television channels including elderly, women and children, 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.

IEP Chandigarh, January 7

Sarbjit Kaur, Mayor, Chandigarh today dedicated third rejuvenated ‘Amrit Sarovar’ of Chandigarh at village Khudda Alisher as part of the ‘Amrit Sarovar Mission’ aimed at the conservation of water.

Ms. Anindita Mitra, IAS, Commissioner, Smt. Jaswinder Kaur, area councillor, other councillors and prominent persons of local area were present during the occasion.

While speaking on the occasion, the Mayor said that Hon’ble Prime Minister of India had launched the Mission aimed at developing and rejuvenating 75 water bodies in each district of the country as a part of celebration of ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’  and the target to complete the work has been fixed as 15^th August, 2023.

She further said that the Municipal Corporation under this mission planned to rejuvenate 3 abandoned Water Bodies at Village Kaimbwala, Sarangpur and Khuda Alisher. The water body at village Kaimbwala had already rejuvenated and dedicated to public on 15^th August 2022 and the water body at village Sarangpur has been inaugurated on 3^rd October, 2022.

The Mayor said that the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh has further planned to rejuvenate 4^th Water Body at  Dadumajra Village and the work will be completed before 15^th August 2023. The Municipal Corporation will also hoist the flag next year on the water body at Sarovar in Dadumajra Village on 15^th August 2023.

She said that this water body is spread on area about 1.15 Acre and have capacity of holding water of 10000Cum. This water body was completely abandoned and lot of vegetation/jungle was grown up when it was transferred to Municipal Corporation Chandigarh in 2019.  The MCC has spent around Rs.30 Lakh rejuvenate this water body. The walls of water body, Lights, Hut for residents, Benches, Path way around the water body has been provided for the public. This water body will also raise the depleted ground water level and avoid flooding in village in addition to conserve the water. This will act as a mini Lake for the residents of the village. It is the duty of villagers now to keep it neat and clean.

IEP Chandigarh

The Haryana State Cooperative Society and Marketing Federation Limited (HAFED) today gave a cheque amounting to Rs. 10 crores for the Chief Minister Relief Fund.

Cooperation Minister, Dr. Banwari Lal along with Chairman, HAFED, Sh. Kailash Bhagat presented the cheque to the Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal. Additional Chief Secretary, Cooperation Department, Sh. T.V.S.N Prasad and Managing Director, Sh.  A. Sreenivas also remained present on this occasion.

Sh. Kailash Bhagat said that HAFED is the largest Apex Cooperative Federation of the State. It came into existence on November 1, 1966  with the formation of Haryana and since then it has been constantly working for the welfare of the farmers.

Sh. Bhagat said that HAFED aims to serve the economic interests of the farmers of Haryana by providing viable and efficient support in Agriculture Production, Marketing and Agri Processing.

With the passage of time, HAFED has expanded the scope of its activities across the country, providing healthy and quality products to the people. Apart from this, basmati paddy rice produced in the state has been included in the export, which is directly benefiting the farmers as they are getting a higher price for their produce. Along with this, HAFED is also procuring ‘Pusa Basmati’ rice from the farmers of Madhya Pradesh.

IEP Chandigarh

To tackle the menace of drug addiction in Sirsa district, which is one of the worst-affected districts of Haryana, the district administration has roped in gurdwaras and temples to become the voice of the administration for checking the menace.

A 52-second audio clip in both Hindi and Punjabi languages will be aired on loudspeakers/audio systems installed in gurdwaras and temples in the district. The clip will be aired at 6 am and 8 pm every day.

Making an appeal to the villagers in the campaign against drug addiction, Deputy Commissioner Parth Gupta stated that drug addiction was a social evil and a stage of mental disease which ruined the health of the addict and destroyed his family and had a negative impact on society as a whole.

In the audio clip, the announcer urges the villagers to wake up to the reality of this evil and join hands to make collective efforts to eradicate this evil. “Villagers should gather information about the addicted persons in their respective villages and help administration take remedial measures. The administration will help these persons in de-addiction and in rebuilding their lives,” the announcer stated, adding that they should not nurse any bias against the affected persons.

The clip is being sent to religious and social organisations for airing it in both rural and urban areas to spread maximum awareness among the residents, the DC said.

Besides, the Development and Panchayat Department would organise sports events in Rania, Oadhan, Nathusari Chopta and Ellenabad blocks in the district and is encouraging youths to participate in the events

IEP Chandigarh/Amritsar, January 4

Keeping in view it’s religious, historic and heritage importance, Punjab Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) Minister Mr. Aman Arora on Wednesday said that the Punjab Government will develop the Holy city Amritsar as one of the top cities across the country.

“The most important city and tourists’ preferred destination Amritsar has largely remained neglected during the tenure of previous governments,” he said.

He said that the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led Punjab Government has big plans in its kitty to further embellish the structure of the holy city from all aspects including infrastructural development, cleanliness and sewerage system.

The cabinet minister along with Power Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO was here to visit the holy city.

After paying obeisance at Sri Darbar Sahib and Sri Durgiana Mandir, Mr Aman Arora and Mr  Harbhajan Singh ETO reviewed the ongoing development projects and functioning of Amritsar Urban Development Authority and also held meetings with colonisers and members of residential welfare societies from Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran and Pathankot.

He categorically said that the Punjab Government won’t tolerate illegal/unauthorised colonies or structures. Each and every colony must be approved from the PUDA, he added.

He also urged people to restrain from buying properties in illegal colonies for short term benefit, as the Mann Government has adopted zero-tolerance against unauthorised colonies and buildings. “We are committed to ensure planned development equipped with state-of-the-art amenities in urban areas,” he said.

Giving a major relief to the landowners, Mr. Aman Arora said that H&UD department has exempted 5773 villages from getting NOC prior to registration of revenue land in rural areas as there was no possibility of colonization in these villages. He said that around 14000 unauthorised colonies have been mushroomed in the state due to negligence of the previous governments. The Mann Government is trying hard to clear this mess created by previous governments.

He said that the state has registered an increase in revenue from excise and GST in the last 9 months and the taxpayers’ money would be spent for welfare schemes and provide the best possible amenities to the people of the state.

Principal Secretary Housing and Urban Development Mr Ajoy Kumar Sinha, CA Amritsar Development Authority Ms. Deep Shikha and other senior officials of district administration were also present in the meetings.