Indian media was itself a major news item as the Mumbai terror attacks came to a conclusion over the weekend.

The country’s broadcasters were summoned Friday by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to deal with charges that the live saturation coverage had helped the terrorists. At the same time, however, traditional media were criticized as too slow and inaccurate by legions of “citizen journalists” using Internet services such as Twitter and photo site Flickr.

The deputy commissioner of police argued that the terrorists, who were holed up in two major hotels and became involved in floor-by-floor firefights with police, were gaining tactical information from TV. Using powers under Section 19 of the country’s Cable Television Networks Act, he ordered a blackout of TV news channels.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Media • * International News & Commentary • Asia • India

1. Dave C. wrote: There will be a lot of finger pointing in the coming weeks as to what agencies and entities failed or contributed to the crisis.  But, I hardly think the media in this case should be near the top of the list. December 1, 12:24 am | [comment link]

2. Katherine wrote: Lots of failures.  Indian police are not prepared for this kind of thing.  The railroad police at CST were apparently armed with batons and WW1-era rifles.  Knowing how India hates to spend rupees, I doubt those rifles could have been fired in many cases, or that their holders had ever taken target practice with them There was a terrifying article, though, about a British couple whose whereabouts were broadcast on CNN.  The terrorists took the lift down to look for them, they said.  I do remember seeing live shots of the commandos sliding onto the roof of Nariman House; the terrorists apparently had TV coverage and knew where troops were being sent. December 1, 2:59 pm | [comment link]

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