Indian TV news reporters, show some maturity

*** Please Note ***
I want to sincerely thank all signatories, for your overwhelming support to this petition.

On 3rd Dec (when there were around 1500 signatures), I have sent this petition by email to the following TV channels: CNN-IBN, NDTV, Zee News, Star News, Times Now, Aaj Tak and Headlines Today. If I get any responses from them, I will post a summary here.

You can continue to sign this petition, or you can choose not to sign it anymore. In either case, your anger has already reached the TV channels. Thank you once again.
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Indian TV news reporters, show some maturity.

Today is 28th Nov. Mumbai has been under attack for 48 hours. Terrorists struck the city brazenly, killing scores of people, and taking others hostage. Watching it all on the TV was very saddening. But terrorism was not the only sad part in that picture. The way you TV reporters behaved since the beginning of the attack was equally saddening, and disgusting.

As soon as policemen and soldiers started their operations, you started chasing them. When they arrived at the attack sites, you showed it on TV. When they were approaching the buildings from different sides, you showed it on TV. You showed how snipers were placed atop the Gateway of India. You mentioned that the soldiers were starting the Oberoi hotel operation from the top floors. You showed every single of their moves!! Though you didn’t intend to, such coverage immensely helped the terrorists, and made the rescue operations difficult. Sitting in Taj or Oberoi, all the terrorists had to do was turn on the TV, and they knew when the policemen/soldiers were coming, how many of them were there, what kind of weapons they had, which side of the building were they approaching from, what was their strategy.. basically, everything they wanted to know.. thanks to your absolutely irresponsible journalism!!

Finally, the police had to call the news channels and ask them to stop the live coverage. They even had to cut off the TV signals in Taj and Oberoi hotels. How can the TV channels be so irresponsible? The press is considered to be one of the pillars of democracy. And here in the largest democracy in the world, that pillar has fallen to such levels that the police and govt had to restrict their actions!! The race for TRP is making our reporters forget that journalism is supposed to help the society, not harm it.

Of Course, this attack was not the first time the TV reporters have acted so irresponsibly. Whenever there are acts of violence in the country, be it riots or bomb blasts, TV channels - with their sensational coverage - scare people instead of helping them. They show the same footage again and again, as if it’s new. They overhype the reality. They promote baseless rumours to “breaking news”. Anything for more ads.