I&B Ministry
FTII impasse continues, 5 students arrested & released on bail for rioting
NEW DELHI: Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) director Prashant Pathrabe has justified his action in calling in the police after he was gheraoed for close to nine hours last night (18 August) by students.
Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Pathrabe said that the students verbally abused him and even termed him as inefficient for not being able to resolve their problem with regard to the appointment of Bharatiya Janata Party member and TV actor Gajendra Chauhan as FTII chairman.
He said that he had attempted to pacify the students and requested them not to resort such tactics but to no avail. He was confined to one room and was verbally assaulted.
Five students, who were arrested in a post-midnight swoop and sent to judicial custody, were then released on bail this evening (19 August).
The police said the students had been charged with rioting and damaging property amongst other charges.
Pathrabe said there were around 40 students who were protesting against what they alleged was “irrational and unjustified” pro-rata course project assessment of the 2008 batch.
The police crackdown came after the 72-day old agitation in which a section of the students are opposing the appointment of Chauhan.
MUMBAI: When the numbers go silent, the noise on screen gets a little harder to measure. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has extended the suspension of television rating data for news channels, directing Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) to withhold TRPs for another four weeks. The latest order, issued on March 31, 2026, builds on an earlier directive from March 6 that had paused ratings for a month. The ministry has clarified that the blackout will continue for four weeks or until further instructions are issued whichever comes earlier keeping the industry in a prolonged state of data drought.
The reasoning, officials suggest, lies far beyond domestic screens. With geopolitical tensions in West Asia continuing to escalate, the government has flagged concerns over how such developments could influence news consumption and presentation. The move is aimed at curbing excessive sensationalism and speculative coverage during what it describes as a sensitive global moment.
For the broadcast ecosystem, the absence of Television Rating Points (TRPs) is more than symbolic, it removes the industry’s primary scorecard. Ratings dictate advertising flows, shape editorial strategies and fuel the competitive pecking order among news channels. Without them, broadcasters are effectively operating without a public performance benchmark.
The timing only adds to the complexity. Amid a high-intensity global news cycle, channels must now navigate audience engagement without the weekly feedback loop that typically drives programming decisions. Advertisers, too, are left recalibrating, leaning on proxies such as brand strength, reach and distribution instead of hard viewership data.
While framed as a temporary regulatory intervention tied to maintaining public order, the extended suspension underscores a broader unease about the tone and direction of news coverage. For now, the ratings race is on pause but the battle for attention continues, just without a scoreboard.
