News Broadcasting
Enquiry by PCI begins in Azam Khan whipping statement
NEW DELHI: The Press Council of India has started its enquiry into the complaints relating to senior Uttar Pradesh Minister Azam Khan’s whipping statement on bureaucracy by asking the editors of the newspapers to explain their side of the story.
Azam Khan had allegedly said in a meeting in Samajwadi Party office at Lucknow on 30 January 2013 that the officers understand only the language of whipping, but the next day his official statement came that such media reports were baseless and had been done to tarnish his image and that of his government.
In view of the credibility of Media, social activist Dr Nutan Thakur had requested PCI Chairman Justice Markandey Katju to conduct a detailed enquiry in the matter so as to bring the truth of whether the initial media reports regarding his whipping statements are correct or not, which will also clarify the situation about his later denials.
News Broadcasting
News TV viewership jumps 33 per cent as West Asia war draws audiences
BARC Week 8 data shows news share rising to 8 per cent despite T20 World Cup
NEW DELHI:Â Even as individual television news channel ratings remain under a temporary pause, the genre itself is seeing a clear surge in audience attention.
According to the latest data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India, television news recorded a 33 per cent jump in genre share in Week 8 of 2026, covering February 28 to March 6.
The news genre accounted for 8 per cent of total television viewership during the week, up from 6 per cent the previous week. The spike in attention coincided with escalating geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which have kept global headlines firmly fixed on West Asia.
The rise is notable because it came at a time when cricket was dominating television screens. The high-stakes stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, including the Super 8 fixtures and semi-finals, were being broadcast during the same period.
Despite the cricket frenzy, viewers appeared to be toggling between sport and global affairs, boosting the overall share of news programming.
The surge in genre share comes even as the government has enforced a one-month pause on publishing ratings for individual news channels. The move followed regulatory scrutiny of the television ratings ecosystem.
While channel-level rankings remain temporarily out of sight, the genre-level data suggests that when global tensions escalate, audiences continue to turn to television news for real-time updates.
