SEN and SEN Awaz were ordered by the district administration to cease all transmissions forthwith since they were alleged to have been found in violation of “programme codes issued from time to time.”
In his ordered issued today, the district magistrate for Srinagar accused the channels of creating law and order problems by giving extensive coverage to the speeches and activities of “secessionist elements.”
“While monitoring recent news bulletins and other programmes, it has been found that these channels are showing stone-pelting, attacks on CRPF bunkers, statements of separatists and Hurriyat’s strike calls in such a way to incite people to create law and order problems,” the order says.
Mir Amjad, the director of the Site Entertainment Network which owns the channels, denied that his channels had aired “mischievous” content that would create law and order problems, and asserted that they had “never broken any rule or order issued by the government.”
“In our bulletins we just report everyday events that pertain to the current situation in Kashmir,” said a Sen Channel official.
The channel has been on air since 2005, and its managers say that this was not first time that the government had seized its equipment or banned its transmissions.
The most notable government action against local networks was the crackdown during the summer of 2008 when the shrine board agitation was at its peak in Kashmir.
All channels were forced to stop news bulletins, prompting a strike by the networks which ended after they agreed to an undertaking pertaining, among other things, to slashing their bulletin time to fifteen minutes.
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
