News Broadcasting
SC shields Arnab Goswami from arrest in breach of privilege case
NEW DELHI: In a major relief to Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami, the Supreme Court has granted him protection from arrest in Maharashtra assembly’s breach of privilege motion against him for his reportage on actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case.
The court highlighted Article 32 stating that the right to approach the court is a fundamental right and no citizen can be deterred from exercising that.
The apex court has also served a show-cause notice to the secretary of the Maharashtra legislative assembly for a letter sent to Goswami cautioning him against disclosing house notice to the apex court. The notice directs the assembly secretary to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him. The assembly secretary has been given two weeks’ time to send in his reply.
In September, Shiv Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik had moved the privilege motion against Goswami in the assembly for the journalist’s “derogatory language” and “baseless remarks” against chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP president Sharad Pawar while covering the Sushant Singh Rajput case.
On a related note, Goswami is currently remanded in 14-day judicial custody for his connection to a 2018 case of abetment to suicide of an interior designer. The order in his plea for interim protection is expected to come today.
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.
