New Delhi(PTI): The government on Monday termed the television news coverage of cricketer Rishabh Pant's road accident and some other crime stories "distasteful" and "heart wrenching" and asked them to strictly follow the programme code laid down under the relevant law.

In an advisory to all private satellite channels, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting cited the coverage of the cricketer's car crash, airing of distressing images of dead bodies and thrashing of a five-year-old boy and said such reporting offended "good taste and decency".

"...television channels have shown dead bodies of individuals and images/videos of injured persons with blood splattered around, people including women, children, and elderly being beaten mercilessly in close shots, continuous cries and shrieks of a child being beaten by a teacher, shown repeatedly over several minutes including circling the actions thereby making it even more ghastly, without taking the precaution of blurring the images or showing them from long shots," read the advisory issued on Monday.

It also said the broadcasters had taken video clips and images from social media and "little effort has been made to modulate or attune or edit such clips so as to make it compliant and consistent with the spirit of the Programme Code."

The ministry has "strongly advised" television channels to attune their systems and practices of reporting incidents of crime, accidents, and violence, including death, in conformity with the Programme Code laid under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.

Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.

Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.

Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.

MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.

MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.

Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.

Brief Scores:

Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).