'Govt faultless over channel resignations'

New Delhi: Taking on the Opposition for accusing the government of going after the media, information and broadcasting minister Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said it was wrong to accuse the government over the resignations of three employees of a private news channel. He said the Opposition was raising the matter as it had no issues to flag in the House.

“No show-cause notice was served to the channel when it was running wrong news. The government has nothing to do with it (the resignations). The TRP (rating point) of the channel is going down,” Mr Rathore said while responding to the allegations raised by Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge in the Lok Sabha that a senior executive of a news channel and two other staffers had recently quit due to pressure from the government for airing stories critical of the ruling establishment.

Though Mr Kharge named the channel, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the name of the private entity and its employees would not go on record. The Congress leader had raised the issue during Zero Hour. The minister said Mr Kharge was talking about a channel which was losing its TRPs. “Why are they (Congress) blaming the government for these resignations in a private news channel,”  Mr Rathore said. The I&B minister also pointed out that the private channel that the Congress leader had named was being aired through Free Dish, which is owned by the government.

“And the government has not taken any action despite the news channel showing wrong news,” he added.