NBDSA Slams 4 Major Media Channels For Their Communal Shows; Inflicts Penalties & Mandates Their Removal

On Thursday, the News Broadcasters & Digital Standards Association, a private media regulatory body in ethics & practices in news broadcasting, levied fines on several mainstream media channels & ordered the removal of certain shows anchored by Sudhir Chaudhary, Amish Devgan & Aman Chopra within seven days from all platforms. Channels that received the order include Times Now Navbharat, Aaj Tak, and News 18 India.

One of the shows, which was narrated by Sudhir Chaudhary, had insinuated towards a community during the Ram Navami violence with provocative headlines like “Aaj Muslim ilaake, kal Muslim desh.” (Today Muslim localities, tomorrow it might be a Muslim country).

The authority came down heavily on his programs and further warned Aaj Tak to be more diligent from now onwards, in a document signed by Retired Justice A.K Sikri, the Chairperson of the authority stated, “NBDSA noted that it appears that in the broadcast, the incident of communal violence by a few miscreants had been generalized by the anchor to target a particular community; a completely different color had been given to the program. This is evident from the statements by the anchor. Thereby violating the code of ethics and broadcasting standards and guidelines of racial and religious harmony.”

It also ordered to take down a video of a robber, which was televised while discussing Rahul Gandhi’s defamation case, while calling the video fictional, saying the implication it gave was not in good taste and should have been avoided. Furthermore, the channel has been imposed with a fine of 75,000 for infringing objectivity and ethics in a show hosted by where he made remarks against Obama when he talked about the disenfranchisement of the marginalized in India, Barack Obama, in an interview with CNN said that India might fall apart if it fails to protect the rights of ethnic minorities.

Sudhir Chaudhary had done dog whistling when he questioned Obama’s statement, asking, “Who talks about the disintegration of India?” and rhetorically associating it with phrases like “tukde tukde gang” and “Khalistani in Punjab”. According to a document, NBDSA said, “There would have been no issue with the impugned broadcast had the anchor confined its analysis only to reporting the statement made by Mr. Barack Obama or criticizing it. However, the anchor was stringent and overboard by bringing in an unconnected narrative. The anchor connected the statement out of the blue with separatist organizations, which was a gross misrepresentation, failing to present a controversial issue with sensitivity and objectivity.” Aajtak is directed to either cut out the violating portion or remove the video altogether.

The Times Now Navbharat was also charged with a fine of 1,00,000 on similar grounds of spreading hatred and discord. Himanshu Dixit, one of the anchors, had maliciously aimed at the Muslim community, vilified them & labeled inter-faith relationships as love jihad, namely the 2022 Shraddha Walkar case, where the girl was viciously murdered. Instances of communalizing sensitive issues are not a new occurrence; numerous TV channels have seen attempting to do this for years now, and NBDSA said that every instance of violence or murder has been linked to love jihad with no substantiated evidence. It further added that “The term love jihad should be used with serious interpretation in future broadcasts as religious stereotyping amounts to a violation of the Code of Ethics.”

“Some instances should not lead to making generalized statements regarding inter-faith marriages by giving it a communal color. Few incidents of such forced marriages cannot brand an entire community. Love is an excuse…Hindu girls are the target; these acts amount to a violation of principles of impartiality and neutrality; the anchor has violated clauses for conducting programs during debates,” it added.

While addressing the behavior of News 18 for shows conducted by Amish Devgan and Aman Chopra, NBDSA said, “While the media has the right to conduct debates on any topic of its choice, it may have been inappropriate to have conducted several debates on love jihad while linking it to the Shraddha Walkar case, the broadcaster has a right to hold debates however it must be cautious that it should not prejudice rights of the accused or result in a media trial. NBDSA is of the view that to link the Walkar case with love jihad and to have debates on it was inappropriate as they painted/targeted an entire community instead of blaming a few miscreants, tickers like ‘Love ka dhikawa, jihad ke liye chalawa (facade of love, deception for jihad) Aftab, Shahrukh, Sufiyan, sabka jihadi plan?’ violate the specific guidelines for anchors conducting programs. Given the broadcasts, we impose a fine of 50,000 on News 18.”

The authority also said that the hosts of the show exhibited predisposed behavior as they circumscribed all men from a particular community to such crimes, alleging them of enticing or luring women from another community, purportedly by concealing their religious identity and committing violence against those women and tried to suppress other panelists who raised questions against their biased actions, they also underlined the ramifications of the religious generalizations and inflammatory debates which can decay the secular characteristics of our nation and cited breaches of many guidelines related to hate speech prevention and avoiding communal narratives while reporting incidents.

Most of these channels have had a history of such prosecutions; back in 2023, NBDSA issued five orders against five programs aired by News18India in connection with cases like the Praveen Nettaru murder, calling Hijab supporters Al Qaeda members, among other accusations, and had charged a cumulative fine of 95,000 on the channel. Zee News and Times now are also repeated offenders; last year in March, they were also indicted and ordered to remove around seven shows, among which some revolved around the Population Control bill, which depicted visuals of Muslim gatherings and sharing of disingenuous and selective statistics on the population. Times Now was charged with disseminating false information on the raising of Pakistani slogans in Pune, which had turned out to be slogans of PFI, both of those channels were ordered to remove the videos from their platforms in violation of similar charges.

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Rahul TiwariNews Writer

Rahul Tiwari, a law student, possesses a keen interest in politics, movies, music, and the pop culture landscape. Equipped with an unyielding spirit for writing, he navigates through his diverse interests with enthusiasm and dedication.

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