By IANS
New Delhi : The government Wednesday told the Delhi High Court that it had invited suggestions from media organisations, voluntary agencies and public for framing policies to restrain TV channels from carrying out vindictive ‘sting operations’.
Appearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice M.K. Sarma, the central government counsel said the draft broadcast bill was not yet ready and the centre would formulate policies to contain the menace of concocted ‘undercover exposes’ run by some TV news channels.
While referring to the ‘sting operation’ carried out by a private TV news channel last month, which alleged a government school teacher was running a prostitution racket, the court said: “If the sting is concocted, it is your responsibility to take action. Some kind of restriction has to be there. It is not about an individual case but about the broader policy.”
The government said it had initiated action against the TV channel and a show-cause notice has already been served to it.
The court’s direction for restraint came in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by social worker Rahul Verma. He cited the case of school teacher Uma Khurana who was framed in the fake sting operation to purportedly show her running a prostitution and porn racket involving some schoolgirls.
Khurana, who was arrested soon after the telecast of the report on Live India Aug 30, was released on bail Sep 10 after police investigation found that a schoolgirl-victim shown in the TV sting was not a student but an aspiring journalist.
The government is working on a broadcasting services regulation bill, which could not be introduced in the recently concluded monsoon session of parliament as broadcasters opposed the imposition of the regulation code.
Currently, few TV news channels have clear guidelines on sting operations, leading to stage-managed ‘investigations’.