10 September 2015,New Delhi. A delegation of News Broadcasters led by Shri Rajat Sharma, President News Broadcasters Association (NBA) and comprising of Shri Narayan Rao of NDTV, Shri Ashok Venkatramani of ABP News, Smt. Anuradha Prasad of News 24, Shri Ashish Bagga of India Today, Shri A.P. Parigi of Network 18 and Smt. Annie Joseph Secretary General, NBA had an interactive session with Shri Sunil Arora, Secretary (I&B) on 10th Sept. 2015. Special Secretary, Shri J.S. Mathur was also present in the meeting.
News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has shown deep concerned about the show cause notices, issued to three channels NDTV 24×7/NDTV India, Aajtak and ABP News regarding the Yakub execution coverage and reportedly having aired phone in interviews of Chhota Shakeel on two channels, which according to the Ministry cast aspersions against the integrity of the Hon’ble President on India & the Judiciary ; and can incite violence and lead to law & order problems.
Since the present Government has gone on record to state that it believes the media should be independent , without any government interference and it should self regulate itself, NBA urges the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to withdraw the show cause notices issued and refer
them to the New Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA), which would
consider them under its regulations.
_____After apprising the Secretary about the initiatives taken by the Broadcasting industry in the direction of self-regulation which includes working of News Broadcasters Standards Authority (NBSA), an independent authority set up by NBA and the two tier mechanism of complaints redressal relating to News Channel followed by them, the following current issues were raised:
(i) Carriage issues with MSOs and Cable Operators.
(ii) Revenue models for growth of the industry