The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Monday, January 9, warned private satellite channels against compromising on 'good taste and decency while covering incidents of accidents, deaths, and violence including violence against women, children and elderly.
In a detailed advisory, the Ministry said it observed several television channels reporting incidents of accidents, deaths, and violence including violence against women, children and elderly in w way that grossly compromised on "good taste and decency" and were quite unpalatable to the eyes and ears of a common viewer.
The Ministry called for adherence to the programme code under The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995.
The advisory noted 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" without taking the precaution of "blurring the images or showing them from long shots".
"The manner of reporting such incidents is distasteful, heart wrenching, distressful, indignifying, sensational, thereby offending good taste and decency," it added.
Television, being a platform usually watched by families in households with people from all cohorts - old aged, middle aged. 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 laid down under the said Act, it said.
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