New Delhi: The News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) has directed news channels Times Now Navbharat and Zee News to remove segments of debate that the NBSA has concluded to be violating of its guidelines.
The NBDSA passed the order after Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) filed the complaints condemning both the TV channels for “communal and inflammatory reporting.”
“In both cases, the NBDSA highlighted the anchors’ partisan conduct, accusing them of steering debates towards religious bias, amplifying communal tensions, and failing to moderate inflammatory statements by panellists,” reported CJP.
The first case pertains to two debates aired on the Israel-Hamas conflict on Times Now Navbharat on October 16, 2023.
In its complaint, the CJP stated that the debates portrayed Indian Muslims supporting Palestine as being aligned with Hamas, despite no evidence to suggest such alignment. Panellists from opposition parties and Muslim backgrounds were treated with hostility, while ruling party representatives were given a platform to make communal diatribes unchallenged.
In its submission to the NBDSA, the broadcaster said that the debates aligned with India’s position on the Israel-Palestine issue and there was no violations of guidelines.
In its order dated January 24, the NBDSA observed that the debates gave a communal tone to the Israel-Palestine conflict, with statements of politicians in support of Palestine were conflated with support for Hamas. The NBSA also said in its order that the debates violated anchor guidelines, targeted a community and failed to provide balanced coverage.
The second complaint was made by the CJP against the Zee Media Corporation Ltd., regarding a live debate segment aired on March 20, 2024, on the encounter of a Muslim man accused of killing to Hindu children in Uttar Pradesh’s Budaun.
In its complaint, the CJP said that derogatory and communal language was used by the anchor, such as referring to the crime as a “Talibani style of murder.”
In its order, the NBDSA’s observations included that labelling the murder as “Talibani-style” based solely on the religion of the accused gave the incident an unwarranted communal colour and broadcast violated the Code of Ethics & Broadcasting Standards, Specific Guidelines for Anchors Conducting Programmes, and Guidelines to Prevent Communal Colour in Reporting Crime.
In both instances, the NBDSA issued warnings to the broadcasters and directed them to remove the complaint from all platforms.
