'Every Inter-Faith Relationship Not Love Jihad' : NBDSA Penalises News18 India, Aaj Tak & Times Now Navbharat For Communal Programs

The News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA), under the stewardship of retired Supreme Court judge, Justice AK Sikri, has taken action against several television news programs for their role in spreading hatred and communal disharmony.

Following complaints lodged by activist ndrajeet Ghorpade, the NBDSA has fined Times Now Navbharat Rs 1,00,000, and News 18 India Rs 50,000, while issuing a warning to Aaj Tak. Additionally, all three channels have been directed to remove the online uploads of the offending programs within seven days.

The fine on Times Now Navbharat was imposed as anchor Himanshu Dixit was found to have targeted the Muslim community & generalised inter-faith relationships as "love jihad".

Further, the fine on News 18 India was imposed for three shows, two of which were anchored by Aman Chopra, and one by Amish Devgan. These shows were found to have communalized the Shradda Walker case as "love jihad."

Similarly, Aaj Tak was reprimanded for a program anchored by Sudhir Chaudhary, which generalized acts of violence during Ram Navami as targeting a particular community.

The complainant cited violations of the Code of Ethics & Broadcasting Standards, particularly regarding impartiality, objectivity, neutrality, and accuracy. Moreover, the NBDSA noted breaches of guidelines related to hate speech prevention, conducting programs with anchors, and avoiding communal narratives in reporting incidents.

In its decision, NBDSA observed that the media has the right to conduct debates on any topic of its choice. However, programs targeting one entire community for the acts of few individuals should be avoided.

Taking objection to the Times Navbharat program on "love jihad", the NBDSA further observed, "on a perusal of the impugned broadcast, it appears that at the very beginning of the broadcast, the anchor has concluded that men from a certain community lured women from another community by hiding their religious identity and then committed violence or murders against such women and every such violence or murder committed on women of a certain community related to love jihad'."

"This is evident from the questions raised and statements made by the anchor during the impugned broadcast. When some of the panellists expressed their concerns regarding the communal angle being given to such alleged incidents and regarding selective cases of violence against women where the perpetrator belonged to a particular community, the anchor shouted them down and did not allow them to express their views.," NBDSA added.

NBDSA also observed that there may be some instances where boys from a particular community married Hindu girls. However, NBDSA Order stated, "some such instances should not lead to making generalized statements regarding inter-faith marriages by giving it a communal colour. Every citizen, from whichever religion, has a right to marry a person of his/her choice, irrespective of the religion to which he/she belongs."

"Merely because a Hindu girl married a boy of another faith would not tantamount to love jihad unless it is established that such a Hindu girl was duped or coerced into the marriage. Further, because of few incidents of such forced marriages, an entire community cannot be branded. Thus, it was not proper to generalize the incidents with the tickers such as “Love तो बहाना है … Hindu बेटियाँ निशाना हैं” Jihadiyon se Beti Bachao” it added.

NBDSA stated that the term "love jihad" should be used with serious introspection in future broadcasts as religious stereotyping can corrode the secular fabric of the nation,

NBDSA opined that had incidents been discussed/debated by themselves, it would have come within the norms of journalistic freedom.

"It is the gencralization of these incidents by targeting the entire community, which is found to be violative of the principles of Impartiality, Objectivity and Neutrality under the Code of Ethics & Broadcasting Standards ("Code of Ethics") and the Specific Guidelines covering Reportage relating to Racial and Religious Harmony. In the impugned broadcast, the anchor had also violated Clauses (f) and (h) of the Specific Guidelines for Anchors conducting Programmes including Debates," the Order stated.

Click here to read the order passed against News18 India

Click here to read the order passed against Aaj Tak

Click here to read the order passed against Times Now Navbharat