The Government is likely to introduce some limitations on live media coverage of security operations like the Mumbai terror attack so that the evolving situation at hand is not compromised by unrestricted reportage as was the case in the ‘26/11’ attacks.

This was disclosed by Union Information & Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday while delivering the first Justice J. S. Verma Memorial Lecture on ‘Freedom & Responsibility of Media’ organised by the News Broadcasters Association in New Delhi. “Security agencies and the Ministry of Defence are clearly of the view that this [minute-by-minute live coverage of security operations] should not happen, and the matter is under serious and advance consideration.”

Maintaining that this was not censorship, Mr. Jaitley drew a contrast between the coverage of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and the November 26, 2008, Mumbai terror attacks. Billing the Mumbai terror attack coverage as an example of the desire of the media to be an actor and report from the spot, he said there was enough intelligence to suggest that the terrorists holding people hostage were getting information about the rescue operation from the live coverage.

Such a restriction on live coverage has been under consideration ever since the Mumbai terror attacks both within and outside the Government. In fact, the NBA – a collective of leading private news and current affairs channels – had issued an appeal on the second day of the hostage situation to all its members to show restraint and self-regulate but this was widely ignored by most networks which went ahead with the live coverage.