Don't air crime episode on Delhi gang-rape: Channel told

Keeping in mind the sensitivities involved, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry on Friday asked a private channel not to telecast an episode in its crime-based show which featured an enactment based on the Delhi gang-rape.

Sources told PTI that the I&B Ministry took note of the promos of popular 'Crime Patrol' on Sony which included an enactment of the incident.

The ministry is learnt to have advised the functionaries of the channel to pull off the promo and also not air the programme. The channel also promptly accepted the ministry's advice, sources in the Ministry said.

When asked about the matter, I&B minister Manish Tewari said that he had also come to know about the matter from some reports on television.

"I think it is important to understand that this is continuing interaction which we have with stakeholders. So everything is not formal or cast in stone," Tewari said.

He said sometimes matters were brought to the notice of the concerned people in the ministry who then took appropriate steps.

"At times, if something is informally flagged for the attention of people within the ministry who deal with it, then they would interlocute and suggest that may be, it would  be appropriate to take a view since there is something flagged for our attention," Tewari said.

He, however, said a tradition has now found root within the ministry because of which it invariably leans toward self-regulation by channels.