NBDSA Finds News18 India & Zee News Guilty For Communally Charged Programs; Slams TimesNow For Wrong 'Pro-Pak' Slogan Report

The News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) on Monday found news channels News18India and Zee News guilty of airing communally charged programs.

The body found Zee News liable for depicting the issue of over-population by targeting the Muslim community and selectively sharing statistics.

The complainant had alleged that the channel broadcasted visuals of large Muslim crowds and statistics about the Hindu-Muslim population to project the Muslim community as being responsible for population explosion.

After going through the programme titled "Jansankhya Badhotari ke liye ek dharma ko zimmedar thehrana jayaz hai?", NBDSA agreed that the broadcaster had given the issue of population explosion a communal colour.

"While it was permissible for the broadcaster to report the statistics available in the Pew Report which projected the Muslim population to be approximately 310 million by 2050. However, in order to ensure balance and neutrality in the programme, it would have been appropriate for the broadcaster to also report the complete statistics given in the said Report which showed that the growth in the Hindu population, would be approximately 1.3 billion by 2050. NBDSA also observed that while reporting such statistics, 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," the order passed by former Supreme Court judge Justice AK Sikri stated.

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

In another complaint, the Body found Times Now liable for wrongly reporting that pro-Pakistan slogans were raised during PFI's protest in Pune.

The channel claimed that its news reporting was based upon information received from various sources including news agencies like ANI, PTI and other free-lance reporters on the ground as it is not always possible for a channel’s reporter to be present at all relevant times at the incident location. The purpose of the impugned programme was to ascertain what had happened, Times Now claimed.

However, NBDSA said if the broadcaster was unsure of the slogans shown in the video, it should have run a disclaimer in respect of the authenticity of the video. "The impugned broadcast appears to have been telecast on account of negligence and in haste," it said while directing the channel to remove the programme links.

The Body has also passed orders against five programs aired by News18 India for giving a communal narrative by giving generalised statements against Muslim community.

The first order is with respect to a debate hosted by Aman Chopra "Hinduon ke khilaf Uttar Pradesh me Mahagathbandhan".

NBDSA noted that the show was flagged off by anchor Aman Chopra with a communally polarizing 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?”.

It said that during the programme, the anchor crossed threshold of impartiality by making 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”.

"By starting the debate on the premise that 20% people were ganging up against Hindus constituting 80%, the anchor had given the debate a thrust, which is communal in nature and not appropriate...While conducting a debate an anchor needs to be objective, impartial and neutral," NBDSA said while imposing fine of Rs. 50,000.

The second order is with respect to a debate on public flogging of men which was called in the channel "police ki dandiya". NBDSA said the anchor vilified and targeted entire Muslim community for acts of few miscreants.

“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 and imposed Rs.25,000 fine on the channel.

The third order of the NBDSA was against the show on Praveen Nettaru murder case. NBDSA observed that the "agenda of the anchor was clear" and that one entire religion was blamed for the acts of few miscreants.

“The broadcaster conducted a debate on the murders of some persons belonging to the Hindu community, which murders were allegedly committed by persons belonging to the Muslims community. 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.

The fourth order is with respect to broadcast of news report on certain viral videos from Ahmedabad, Indore and Akola, which showed certain miscreants being physically assaulted for allegedly attending Garba celebrations.

NBDSA found that the tickers used by the channel gave communal tilt to the broadcast and created an impression that men from a certain community were miscreants and/or criminals who were trying to harm/deceive women of another community. 

The fifth order is with respect to a broadcast emanating from the report of Security Forces in Assam and Uttar Pradesh, which flagged the unprecedented and unusual change in demographics of few bordering states due to sudden and unprecedented rise in Muslim population. 

The Body said there would have been no problem with the broadcast, if the broadcaster in the impugned broadcast had raised only national security concerns in respect of demographic changes around the border areas of the country due to infiltration.

However, the broadcast attempted to communalize the issue, NBDSA said. "the broadcaster attempted to create a communal narrative by giving the impression that a particular minority community were intruders and were attempting to change the demographic of the country by supporting illegal infiltrators.

The Authority also took serious objection to the offensive and inflammatory tickers such as “Border par badhe ‘bhaijan’, Khatarnak he Plan?” 

It was thus of the view that the above programmes violated the fundamental principles of Impartiality, Objectivity and Neutrality in reporting and the Specific Guidelines Covering Reportage No. 9 relating to Racial & Religious Harmony.

Click Here To Read/Download The Order

Click Here To Read/Download The Order

Click Here To Read/Download The Order

Click Here To Read/Download The Order

Click Here To Read/Download The Order

Click Here To Read/Download The Order

Click Here To Read/Download The Order