The English news Channel Times Now said on Saturday that it is suspending its election results coverage for Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, and Puducherry owing to the health emergency situation in the country.
The official statement from Times Now read, “Our nation faces its biggest health emergency in a century. Each one of us has now experienced the devastation and loss the pandemic has brought home or very close to it. And there is right indignance among citizens at large that the second wave would have been better controlled had we avoided two of the mega risk events in the last two months, Kumbh Mela, and elections in five states in normal campaigning mode.”
“As the waves keep climbing, with it claiming more innocent lives, it is clear that there has been a serious lapse in leadership at all levels — across the political spectrum,” read the statement.
Times Now stated that they would carry flash news updates on the counting and results.
The statement further read, “While we acknowledge that the five-state election results are of interest to our homebound viewers, we at Times Now have decided to suspend our usual special election coverage on May 2. We will also refrain from covering poll-related celebrations as a symbolic gesture of our disagreement with the untimeliness of this activity. We will keep COVID-19 as our main priority and focus on COVID-related news reports.”
