It’s no secret that the portrayal of the terrible events that unfolded in Mumbai by TV news channels has many people pissed off. None more than Vishal Dadlani it appears. The Pentagram frontman, better known for being the eponymous half of the Bollywood music production duo Vishal-Shekhar, is the driving force of Smallchange.in; a website set up as a petition to the High Court to hold objections against the way news channels broadcast minute details of the terror attacks.
Dadlani says
I was shocked that every minute of the encounter was relayed live. More than generating viewer interest, it gave minute-by-minute information to the terrorists. We want television channels to follow a code of conduct while weâ??re under attack. Some information should be classified. They even showed when ATS (Anti Terrorist Squad) chief Hemant Karkare arrived on the site. I didnâ??t know who he was. If you assume that the terrorists too were in the same position, this news definitely helped them.
Members of my family, who are in the armed forces, have expressed horror at the live telecast by the channels and interviews with people in the hotel. One channel even had a terrorist giving out propaganda material. This broadcast could have endangered the lives of our commandos. They definitely did not need to point out where the heads of chambers were stuck.
In an interview with Rediff.com, Vishal was asked whether he watched the live coverage of the events. To which he replied
I watched throughout, for the entire 65 hours.
Of course, I could be Daily Show-ing the dealio. Vishal doesn’t fail to mention that he is ‘a musician’, which was a nice touch.
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