New Delhi, March 7 -- Congress MP and former Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari on Saturday said that the Centre could direct the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) to withhold reporting Television Rating Points (TRPs) for news channels, exercising the powers granted by the policy guidelines drafted by the UPA government in 2014.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) on Friday directed BARC to suspend the reporting of TRPs for news channels for four weeks or until further notice, citing concerns over sensationalism and speculative content in coverage related to the ongoing West Asia conflict.

In an X post, Manish Tewari said that before the Policy Guidelines for Television Rating Agencies, 2014, the...