Television Channels Cautioned Against Broadcasting ‘Distasteful & Distressing’ Footages, Images

New Delhi: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Monday issued an advisory to all television channels, asking them not to report accidents, deaths, and violence, including those against women, children and the elderly, in manners which are grossly inappropriate and not in good taste.

The Ministry 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 the 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 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.

Besides highlighting that the ‘distasteful and distressing’ manner of reporting such incidents, the advisory said that these can also have an adverse psychological impact on children.

It further underlined the invasion of privacy which could be potentially maligning and defamatory.