NDTV ban or no ban- The inside story behind the flip-flop

NDTV moved the Supreme Court on Monday challenging the one day ban. The ban which was to be effective on November 9 had come under heavy criticism from various quarters

| Updated: Tuesday, November 8, 2016, 12:11 [IST]

New Delhi, Nov 8: The ban and then the lift. Twitter was abuzz with several persons questioning the logic of first banning NDTV India for a day and then go on to lift the same. Interestingly Venkaiah Naidu had on Monday said at a presser that the ban was justified.

However by evening source based information from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry began to trickle in suggesting that the ban was put on hold.

Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation and Information & Broadcasting, M. Venkaiah Naidu

This evoked a very strong reaction on the social media with people questioning the logic behind this decision. The question that was asked was, " if the government wanted to lift the ban, why did it impose it in the first place." People also questioned why Venkaiah Naidu had in a presser justified the ban only to change his stand later in the evening.

Flip-flop:

NDTV moved the Supreme Court on Monday challenging the one day ban. The ban which was to be effective on November 9 had come under heavy criticism from various quarters. NDTV in its petition before the Supreme Court had said that the ban had a chilling effect on the freedom of speech and expression.

Did this petition before the court ensure a change in the stand by the government. Government sources tell OneIndia that it is not a change in stand.

The ban has been put on hold. Moreover during a meeting between NDTV's Prannoy Roy and Naidu, the former had said that the channels point of view was not fully appreciated by the Inter-ministerial committee which had recommended the ban in the first place.

Following the meeting, it was decided that the ban would be put on hold until the disposal of the appeal. All eyes would today be on the Supreme Court today which will hear the petition filed by NDTV.

The government is expected to make its stand clear about why the ban was proposed in the first place. The IMC had said that it was the coverage on the Pathankot attack which had led to the ban as national security was compromised.

OneIndia News