From a Correspondent
Guwahati, April 7,
Electronic Media Forum Assam (EMFA), while reacting to the recent debates on NaMo TV, urges the country based news channels to introspect whether a major challenge of credibility crisis was actually looming over the electronic media. The forum, in a statement issued today, also pondered if the common people of India have slowly turned to raw information rather than interpretive news contents aired by recognized news channels.
It may be noted that since 31 March 2019, a new 24×7 channel became available in all major direct to home (DTH) & cable platforms of India named NaMo TV, that started telecasting mostly the real time and full speeches of Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with few other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and ministers.
NaMo TV doesn’t feature on the list of Information and Broadcasting Ministry’s (GoI) permitted private satellite TV channels and hence since its arrival, major debates were sparked over its legality and ownership. Meanwhile, the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have complained to the Election Commission (EC) against the channel arguing that it simply violates the model code of conduct, following which the EC had sent notices to the concerned ministry.
Meanwhile, former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi, in a recent interview, commented that NaMo TV did not violate the poll code, which came into effect on 10 March as the election commission declared the seven-phase national polls starting from 11 April, counting of which would take place on 23 May.
Named after Narendra Modi, the channel carries a clear photograph of the Prime Minister on its logo, is understood as being described as a special advertisement platform, where expenses are being borne by the ruling BJP. PM Modi himself tweeted about the channel and asked people to watch it, following which millions of saffron supporters & sympathizers continued gluing on the channel.
“Real threats may emerge to all registered news channels (many of whom now slowly turn to be cheap entertainers), as millions of Indian audience now prefer to listen to their adorable political leaders
without biased editing and interpretations. Media will be nowhere in the country, if the readers, listeners and viewers start suspecting it as a corrupt entity,” warned the EMFA statement.
