Media Body Pulls Up Zee News, News18, Times Now; Cites Communalism, Misreporting

The NBDSA held these news channels guilty of airing communally charged shows and violating reporting guidelines.

News18, Zee News Aired Communal Shows; Times Now Misreported: Media Body

(Photo: Namita Chauhan/Altered by The Quint)

The News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) on Monday, 27 February, pulled up news channels News18India, Times Now and Zee News for airing communally charged programs and misreporting.

Zee News: The media body said that Zee News was responsible for targeting Muslims for over population by sharing selective data.

The complaint against the TV news challenge alleged that it had aired visuals of massive Muslim crowds and portrayed statistics bout the Hindu-Muslim population so as to make Muslims seem responsible for population explosion.

Former Supreme Court judge AK Sikri, while passing the order, observed that the broad caster had indeed added a communal tinge to over population. He said this after going through their programme titled "Jansankhya Badhotari ke liye ek dharma ko zimmedar thehrana jayaz hai?"

The order added that, in spirit of balance and neutrality, the broadcaster, instead of just saying that the Muslim population "would be approximately 310 million by 2050," should have mentioned "that the growth in the Hindu population, would be approximately 1.3 billion by 2050."

 "It would have been factually correct and accurate for the broadcaster to also inform the viewers about the fact as to the growth rate of the various communities, which found mention in the Report instead of selectively picking up the statistics from the said Report."

Justice AK Sikri

The channel has now been directed to publicize that the program was against Code of Ethics & Broadcasting Standards.

Times Now: Besides Zee News, NBDSA also held Times Now responsible for misreporting that during PFI's protest in Pune, pro-Pakistan slogans were raised.

However, in defence, the channel said that it had relied on various sources like news agencies like ANI, PTI and other free-lance reporters on the ground for its news report, since the channel could not always send its reporters to the said location at relevant times.

Responding to this, NBDSA said that if the channel was unsure of what had happened on the ground, it should have run its video with a disclaimer regarding its authenticity.

"The impugned broadcast appears to have been telecast on account of negligence and in haste," the body said while asking the broadcaster to remove the programme links.

News18: The media body has passed directives against five programmes by News18 India.

1. Anchor Aman Chopra had hosted a debate titled "Hinduon ke khilaf Uttar Pradesh me Mahagathbandhan" and had started the show with the question “Hinduon ke khilaf Uttar Pradesh me Mahagathbandhan tayyar ho raha hai, aur jab 80 vs. 20 ki baat ki thi Yogi Adityanath ne toh wo sahi thi?”.

   NBDSA, in its order, noted that the question was communally polarising and statements like “Ye 80 k khilaf hai mahagathbandhan" and “Wo keh ray lwi kay unhey Hinduo sey problem hai aur wo 80 kay khilaaf hai" had crossed the threshold of impartiality.

2. The brodcaster aired another show called "police ki dandiya", which depicted public flogging of men and villified Muslims.

   “Broadcaster had failed to condemn police violence and in fact kept looping the video of the police beating the men. The thrust of the broadcast appeared to give the impression that the actions of the police were justified,” NBDSA said while imposing Rs.25,000 fine.

3. In another news show, related to the Praveen Nettaru murder case, NBDSA pointed out that the "agenda of the anchor was clear" because an entire religion had been demonised.

   "The programme also showed the people coming out on streets condemning these incidents. To this extent, there may not be any objection in respect of airing the impugned programme. However, (the anchor) did not allow the debate to go on objectively by interrupting a panellist who wanted to put his point across and did not allow him to speak,” the Body said, according to LiveLaw.

4. The channel aired viral videos from Ahmedabad, Indore and Akola, which portrayed certain people being physically assaulted for reportedly attending Garba celebrations.

   The body said that the channel had added a communal angle to the incident by trying to say that men from a certain community were criminals and were trying to harm women from another community.

5. In a report on the Security Forces in Assam and Uttar Pradesh, the channel had pointed out the unusual change in demographics of a few bordering states due to the sudden rise in Muslim population. 

   NBDSA pulled up the news channel for using inflammatory tickers such as “Border par badhe ‘bhaijan’, Khatarnak he Plan?” 

   The media body added that had the channel only flagged national security concerns, there would have been no problem but it had instead communalised it.

Thus, the NBDSA added that the channel had iolated the fundamental principles of Impartiality, Objectivity and Neutrality in reporting and the Specific Guidelines Covering Reportage No. 9 relating to Racial & Religious Harmony, by airing the above programmes.

(With inputs from LiveLaw)