Information and Broadcasting minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday attacked those criticising the one-day ban on NDTV India saying the ‘belated criticism’ is clearly ‘ill informed and politically inspired’ to create a controversy. He said people should know that the UPA Governments, during 2005-14, ordered several TV channels to go off air.
The minister said, “Such reaction that came a day after the government’s decision was in public domain on November 3, 2016 was clearly an afterthought, suggesting a motivated design to create a controversy where none existed.”
He said that the decision against NDTV India was not based on any newly invented rule and principle. “The ground on which action has been proposed against NDTV India was only a logical conclusion of concerns clearly articulated by the UPA government in various advisories issued after 26/11 terror attacks on multiple targets in Mumbai in 2008,” said Naidu.
Naidu said that very recently in an interaction, he had stressed that effective self-regulation by media is the best way of protecting its freedom and we are committed to it.