NBSA to examine Jindal Steel's extortion charge against Zee News

New Delhi: The News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) on Friday took up Jindal Steel's complaint against Zee News. Jindal Steel had filed an extortion case against the television news channel with the Press Council of India.

However, in a press release, NBSA said, "The complaint filed by Jindal Steel Ltd regarding telecast of news with regard to allocation of coal blocks and other issues on Zee News, Zee Business and Zee UP (channels of Zee News Ltd.) with Press Council of India (PCI) has been forwarded to Chairperson, NBSA, as the complaint does not fall within the remit of PCI."

The press release added, "On the basis of the material placed before it and considering the seriousness of the complaint, the NBSA has taken suo motu cognizance of the matter."

Earlier in the day, the Broadcast Editors\' Association reportedly sacked the editor and business head of the TV news channel.

NBSA Chairperson Justice JS Verma will now examine the complaint. Earlier in the day, the Broadcast Editors' Association (BEA) reportedly sacked the editor and business head of the TV news channel. Last week, Naveen Jindal had filed a police complaint against Zee News charging that its senior journalists had demanded "advertisement commitments" worth crores of rupees to block airing a negative story about the company's alleged involvement in the scam-tainted coal block allocations.

Subsequently, Zee News also alleged that Jindal misbehaved with a team of its reporters after they sought clarifications from him on the allegations levelled against his company for alleged irregularities in allocation of coal bocks. Zee Group Chairman Subhash Chandra had also said his journalists were not involved in any wrongdoing and asserted that the accusations were false.

(With additional information from PTI)

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