N0ew Delhi, Nov 7 (IANS) Journalists associations on Monday unanimously condemned the one-day ban on NDTV India news channel and termed it as a selective move by the government.
The journalists, who held a protest meet at the Press Club of India here, criticized the Center's decision of singling out just one channel for the alleged breach of telecast norms.
The ban was imposed by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for what it called a leak of strategic information of national importance by the Hindi channel in its coverage of the January 2 Pathankot terror attack on the Indian Air Force base.
Representatives of Editors Guild, Indian Journalists Union, Delhi Union of Journalists, Indian Womens Press Corps, Federation of Press Clubs were joined by a large number of well known journalists.
"If only one channel is pulled off air then it's a problem. There were several others who aired the coverage of the attack but no action was taken against them," media personality Rajdeep Sardesai said.
"We need to challenge the audacity of these bureaucrats, how can they just take a decision to impose a ban among themselves? Media organization are liable to respond to self regulatory bodies. It is precisely for these kind of circumstances that we find ourselves in that we had formed these bodies," he added.
Caravan political editor Hartosh Singh Bal, Editors Guild Treasurer Seema Mustafa also spoke at the meet and condemned the ban.
