NBDSA Directs Times Now Navbharat To Take Down Show Hosted By Navika Kumar Giving 'Communal Tilt' To Discussion On Garbha Events

The News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) on Thursday (2nd November) passed an order against a show hosted by Navika Kumar in Times Navbharat channel for giving a communal tilt to a discussion on Garbha events.

The NBDSA cautioned the channel and directed it to avoid giving a communal colour to its reports. The authority headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice AK Sikri held that the broadcaster had violated the Guidelines to prevent communal colour in reporting crime, riots, rumours and such related incidents and the Specific Guidelines Covering Reportage relating to Racial and Religious Harmony. NBDSA accordingly directed the broadcaster to take down the video from the website of the channel and from YouTube. This removal of the content must be confirmed with the NBDSA within 7 days, it was ordered.

The order was passed on a complaint filed by Tech Ethics Professional Indrajeet Ghorpade who alleged that the show targeted the Muslim community as a whole and violated broadcasting standards. Another complaint was filed by one Mr. Matin Mujawar regarding the same broadcast.

The complaint pertains to a broadcast aired on Times Now Navbharat on 29.9.2022 about a Muslim man being physically assaulted by Bajrang Dal members at a Garba event. The channel claimed that the episode was focussed on women’s safety at public events by highlighting incidents where inappropriate photographs of women were taken by miscreants at a garba event. 

The complaint claimed that the channel was spreading hatred by broadcasting news with a communal agenda, which could cause harm to minorities and disturb the secular fabric of the nation.

The channel defended its show, claiming that only valid questions about women's safety at such public events were raised. The channel in its reply to NBDSA also said it did not intend to target a particular community. The channel claimed that the allegations raised in the complaints were ‘out of context and baseless’.

However, the NBDSA in its order noted that instead of confining the show to the issue of safety of women, the broadcaster gave it a communal tilt. The NBDSA observed in its order that the broadcaster had generalized the alleged incidents “thereby giving a certain tilt to the programme by creating an impression that only men from a certain community were miscreants and/or criminals who were trying to harm/deceive women of another community in the garba festival.”

The communal tilt is visible from the nature of questions raised by the anchor and the language used in the tickers, the authority said.

Advocate Sanchita Kadam represented complainant Indrajeet Ghorpade.

Click here to read the order