AGARTALA, Nov 6 (TIWN): It was for the first time that the Union government has ordered a TV news channel to be blacked out for revealing “strategically sensitive information” during a terror attack. BJP Govt in its 2 and half years of regime has done it first time, as NDTV’s broadcasting was done in a sensitive moment, immediately after the surgical strikes was done against Pakistan.The coverage of the militant attack was on the Pathankot airbase was violating the external affairs policy of any country. Scheduled for November 9, the day-long blackout order has now circled all the anti-BJP parties together and all politicians are showering sympathy for that channel to propagate own party image. Recently Mamata Banerjee, who has called for all anti-BJP parties to be together has slammed the govt of India for its decision. "NDTV ban is shocking. If the government had issues with the Pathankot coverage, there are provisions available. But a ban shows an Emergency-like attitude," Mamata Banerjee said in a statement.

 A one-day ban on NDTV India and said it showed that an "emergency-like situation" prevailed in the country, says Banerjee.

On January 29, the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting served a show cause notice to NDTV’s Hindi channel for its coverage of the militant attack on the Pathankot airbase in Punjab. The notice accused NDTV India of broadcasting “strategically sensitive information” which was “likely to be used by the perpetrators to put impediment in the counter-operations carried by the security forces”.

The notice was served to NDTV India under the programme code, a list of broadcast rules made by the Union government as per the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act of 1995, which was amended in 2015 to prohibit “live coverage of any anti-terrorist operation by security forces… till such operation concludes.”

The accusation was that NDTV India had, in a broadcast on the afternoon of January 4, revealed information about the location of militants while they were still attacking the Pathankot Air Force base in Punjab, an incident that eventually saw seven military personnel and one civilian killed. The notice accused NDTV India of announcing on air how close the militants were to sensitive installations such as an ammunition depot, airstrip and an army base.

It quoted the NDTV reporter saying: “Two terrorists are still alive and they are next to an ammunitions depot. And the jawans who are under fire, they are concerned that if the militants make it to the ammunitions depot, then it will be even harder to neutralise them.”

The broadcast also allegedly revealed information about the airbase: that it contained MIG fighter jets, rocket launchers, mortars, helicopters and fuel tanks, and had schools and residential areas. The notice argued that this information could be “used by the terrorists themselves or their handlers”.

However, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday hit back at criticism of the 24-hour ban imposed on Hindi news channel NDTV India, saying that "freedom of press is important but the country's security can't be compromised".