Channels under fire from broadcasting bodies for ‘defaming’ Hindi film industry

Four months into the high-pitched debates on Bollywood’s toxic practices, the government and broadcaster associations are finally cracking the whip on Indian news media organizations.

Last week, the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) issued an advisory to all private satellite television channels asking them to broadcast content strictly adhering to Programme and Advertising Codes, which must not contain “anything obscene, defamatory, deliberate, false and suggestive innuendos and half-truths”.

The move came in the wake of the Delhi high court directing the ministry to file a status report on measures taken to restrain the media after actor Rakul Preet Singh filed a petition before the court alleging that media organizations were running defamatory programmes based on unsubstantiated allegations, which is causing irreparable harm to her reputation.