Zee24 TAAS, one of the leading Marathi news channels of Maharashtra, has been preserving communal harmony, taking into consideration the holy month of Ramazan and the recently celebrated Ram Navami festival.
A clash broke out between groups in the Kiradpura area of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (earlier known as Aurangabad) on Wednesday night. Several police vehicles were set on fire and pelted with stones amid the violence. Several news websites and videos flashed breaking news headlines like ‘Maharashtra: Twenty policemen injured in Sambhaji Nagar riot’, ‘Aurangabad violence: 1 dead, 7 arrested; SRPF deployed in city’, ‘22 injured as clashes mar Ram Navami processions in several states’ were viral all over the internet, news apps , TV sets etc . However, inspite of having the LIVE video footage of the Chatrapati Sambhaji Nagar riots, Zee24 TAAS took a conscious decision to not broadcast the riot video that were available with the channel.
Nilesh Khare, Editor& Business head, Zee24 TAAS, said, “Zee24 TAAS news channel is known to be a reliable source. Exclusive program packaging on the destructive riots would help us earn highest viewership in the week gone by, but would negatively impact the law and order, hurting religious sentiments of diverse communities. So, our entire team of reporters and producers took a collective decision on avoiding the reportage of the riots.”
Appreciating the entire team of Zee24 TAAS, Devendra Fadnavis, Home Minister of Maharashtra, said “All videos of vandalism in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar riots were available with Zee 24 TAAS. As a responsible news channel, Zee24 TAAS didn’t broadcast a single video of this riot, even though all the videos are available since that morning. This did lead to maintaining peace, law and order in the state during Ram Navami and the ongoing Ramazan.”
Zee 24 TAAS has over 37 lakh followers on Facebook, 5.06 lakh followers on Instagram & 7.5 lakh on Twitter.
