The Indian government on November 4, 2016, ordered NDTV India, a Hindi-language news channel, to stop broadcasting from November 9-10, after a committee in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting found that the channel had revealed “strategically-sensitive information” while covering an attack on an Indian Air Force base in Pathankot in Punjab state in January this year, media reports said.
In a statement on its website, the network said: “It is shocking that NDTV has been singled out in this manner. Every channel and newspaper had similar coverage.”
An official in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that the channel had violated the Cable Television Networks Rules, as amended in 2015, which prohibit the live broadcast of a counterterrorism operation.
NDTV India has come under government pressure before. In a June 2016 advisory, it asked the channel to “be more careful with regard to content to be telecast on the channel.” The advisory came after NDTV India termed a Supreme Court judgment “unfortunate” on a July 2015 news program.