India TV has sent in its defence to the Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry in response to the show-cause notice sent to it on airing a telephonic conversation with two terrorists holed up in Nariman House and The Oberoi Hotel. The news channel has defended the airing of this conversation before the ministry saying that it had informed the Intelligence Bureau about the call from the terrorists and had aired it in good faith to help investigative agencies gather more information on the terror attacks in Mumbai. It also said that it had repeatedly appealed to the terrorists to end the crisis and surrender.

The I&B Ministry had issued a show-cause notice to the channel under the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act’s Programming Code saying that by airing this conversation the channel provided the terrorists a platform to espouse their cause.

“We received the channel’s response on Monday and it will be examined in due course. The channel has claimed that it had informed investigative agencies about the phone call and had aired it to help gather information about those behind the heinous crime,” said a senior official from the I&B Ministry.

Incidentally, other TV channels had received a similar information but had refused to give any air time to the terrorists who identified themselves as Shadullah and Iman Babbar on India TV.

“Several TV news channels had received information on some conversation with the terrorists but they claim to have all decided against broadcasting it. However, India TV chose to air it and that is seen as a violation of the Cable TV

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