I&B Ministry says Zakir Naik’s channel has no permission to downlink
New Delhi : Islamic preacher Zakir Naik’s Peace TV channel is not permitted by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to downlink and warned the cable operators that action will be taken for transmitting the channel, the ministry said on Saturday.
In view of reports that the channel’s content is aimed at inciting communal violence, the ministry issued a notification directing officials to take action against those transmitting the channel.
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NEW DELHI: Acknowledging that Zakir Naik’s speeches were provocative, former Mumbai police commissioner and now Baghpat MP Satyapal Singh on Saturday said Mumbai Police had forwarded a report of his activities to the then UPA government in 2008, but no action was taken on it.
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The ministry’s Deputy Secretary Shankar Lal said: “Reports are being received of such content being broadcast through private satellite TV channels, such as Peace TV channel, which are not permitted by this ministry for downlinking into the country.”
Naik is under the scanner following revelations that two of the five terrorists who massacred 20 hostages at a cafe in Dhaka on July 1 drew inspiration from his speeches. “Some unauthorised private satellite television channels are being transmitted by some cable operators.
This is a clear violation of the sub-rule 6(6) of the Cable TV Rules under programme code and needs to be acted upon immediately,” Lal said. “Necessary action must be taken by the authorised officers promptly against the defaulters to stop transmission of these channels,” he added.
Issuing a list of 892 private channels which are permitted to telecast in the country, the ministry has advised all state governments to constitute state and district-level monitoring committees for broadcast content. It also said that people can send their complaints against telecast of non-permitted channels.
IANS
