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The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting urged all states and Union Territories to ensure "operational continuity" of print and electronic media in view of coronavirus outbreak.
In a letter to the chief secretaries of all states and Union Territories on Monday, 23 March, the ministry said robust and essential information dissemination networks like TV channels, news agencies "are of utmost importance to ensure timely and authentic information dissemination".
"...good practices need to be promoted and these networks play a pivotal role in ensuring the same," it said.
Newspapers stopped being delivered in Mumbai, following the ‘janata curfew’ on Sunday, 22 March.
Newspapers like Deccan Chronicle, which operates in the south, have announced that they will suspend their print editions till 31 March.
The regular supply is also affected in parts of Delhi NCR, Kolkata and Chennai, as on Tuesday, 24 March. In Bengaluru, however, there has been regular delivery of the newspapers.
The letter urged the state governments and Union Territory administrations to facilitate operational convenience of the services.
The services include TV channels, news agencies, teleport operators, Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG), Direct to Home (DTH) and Highend-in-the Sky (HITS), Multi System Operators (MSOS), cable operators, Frequency Modulation (FM) radio and Community Radio Stations (CRSS).
It also said the movement of vehicles carrying media persons, DSNGs and others including provisioning of fuel, where-ever required may kindly be facilitated; and availability of uninterrupted electric supply and other logistics as requested by such facilities be provided.
(With inputs from PTI)
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