Guess who broke the norm while reporting Gurdaspur terror attacks? DD News

If a recent report is to be believed, public broadcaster DD News found itself in violation of the guidelines set by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting when it comes to covering terror attacks when it was the only channel that broadcast the police operations live during the Gurdaspur terror strike on Monday. The Indian Express reported on Tuesday that the ministry found the channel to have violated the guidelines during its coverage of terror attack. [caption id=“attachment_2367278” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “] Source- ddindia.gov.in[/caption] DD is said to have aired live footage of the anti-terror operations for three to five minutes during the attack on Monday, which led to the ministry to raise the red flag. Officials are also reported to have said that action will be taken against officials who allowed the lapse. During the attacks on Monday, other television channels desisted from showing live footage of the incidents. After the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, coverage by some sections of the media was criticized for not being responsible enough. Articles like this one in  The Hindustan Times  pointed out that news channels may actually have helped the attackers by revealing the whereabouts of security forces and civilians. It mentions an instance where a report revealed the location of some civilians in the Taj Mahal hotel, even while terrorists were on the loose in the hotel. The Supreme Court, too, had come down heavily on the media coverage of terror attacks. According to this report , the court had said “the reckless coverage…gave rise to a situation where, on the one hand, the terrorists were completely hidden from the security forces and they had no means to know their exact positions or even the kind of firearms and explosives they possessed and, on the other, the positions of the security forces, their weapons and all their operational movements were being watched by the collaborators across the border on TV screens and being communicated to the terrorists.” After the criticism from the top court, the News Broadcasting Association (NBA) came up with guidelines to be followed during coverage in such situations. The rules put in place a ban on live reporting of terror attacks, and also restricted news channels from divulging details such as the number of hostages while the attack is going on.