Citing Rishabh Pant accident, Centre issues advisory to blur gory, ghastly images & videos

New Delhi, Jan 9 The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Monday 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 compromise on "good taste and decency" and impacts small children.

The advisory has been issued after several instances of lack of discretion by television channels were noticed by the Ministry.

The ministry cited the accident involving cricketer Rishabh Pant in which the ministry said, "showed the distressing images and videos of a cricketer injured in an accident, without blurring".

The Ministry has said, "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 was distasteful and distressing for the audience.

It said there was 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," it said.

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