4

Mar

Action Against Hate-Mongering TV Channels: Too Late and Too Little

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Today’s Edition

New Delhi, 4 March 2024

Dr. Satish Misra

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The recent order of the News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) calling for several television news programmes including Times Now Navbharat and Aaj Tak to pay fines   for their role in spreading hatred and communal disharmony appeared to be a welcome relief arousing hope that the action will deter Media Moghuls who own powerful and TRP hungry news channels from doing further damage to society and polity.        

Times Now Nav Bharat has been fined Rs 1 lakh and News 18 India has been ordered to pay a fine of Rs 50,000 and a warning has been issued to Aaj Tak. All the three channels have been ordered to take down the online versions of the programmes within seven days.

Growing anger and hate in society among different communities particularly between majority and minority has emerged as an issue of serious concern and even the apex court has expressed its dismay over the rising phenomenon. Media in general and digital platforms along with different audio-visual TV news channels in particular have been playing an assisting role in the spread of the virus of communal hatred.                   

The NBDSA, formerly known as News Broadcasters Association (NBA) is an industry body, not an arm of the government, was formed as a self- regulatory mechanism to maintain a vigil over the functioning and also to avoid any government control which will also help in creating a positive impression about the freedom of the press. It is currently headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, Justice A.K. Sikri.

This represents the private television news, current affairs and digital broadcasters. It describes itself as “the collective voice of the news, current affairs and digital broadcasters in India. It is an organization funded entirely by its members” on its website.

The NBDSA order followed complaints lodged against the communal and inflammatory shows by activist Indrajeet Ghorpade. Times Now Nav Bharat, a part of the mega Times of India group, has been penalised as anchor Himanshu Dixit was found to have targeted Muslims as a community and termed inter-faith relationships as “love jihad”.

News 18 India, now part of billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s group, was fined for as many as three shows, two of which were anchored by Aman Chopra, and one by Amish Devgan. These shows have been penalised as they were found to have communalised the Shraddha Walker murder case as one of so-called “love jihad.”

Aaj Tak, of the India Today group, was warned for its show anchored by Sudhir Chaudhary, which generalised acts of violence during Ram Navami as one of targeting a particular community.

The complainant had cited violations of the Code of Ethics & Broadcasting Standards, regarding impartiality, objectivity, neutrality, and accuracy. The NBDSA also cited breaches of guidelines related to hate speech prevention and avoiding communal narratives in reporting incidents.

Referring to Times Now Nav Bharat programme on Love Jihad, the NBDSA said, “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 at them down and did not allow them to express their view”, the NBDSA said in its ruling.

The 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”, according to the Live Law.

On February 4, 2020, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a written answer to Parliament, when asked about so-called “love jihad” that “the term ‘Love Jihad’ is not defined under the extant laws. No such case of ‘Love Jihad’ has been reported by any of the central agencies.” It also said that “Article 25 of the Constitution provides for the freedom to profess, practice and propagate religion subject to public order, morality and health. Various courts have upheld this view including the Kerala High Court.” The Ministry did add that “two cases from Kerala involving inter-faith marriages have been investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).”

Indian TV news channels being filled with hate has been a matter of concern for some years now. The Supreme Court, while hearing a matter on the prevalence of hate in Indian media in 2022, cited the audience as a reason. “Hate drives TRPs, drives profit,” one judge said.

Last year on March 2, 2023, the NBDSA had ordered three TV news channels to remove their programmes. Two of them were repeat offenders, News18 India and Times Now, apart from Zee TV. They were asked to remove as many as seven programmes broadcast by them from their online platforms and YouTube because these were in violation of the Code of Ethics and Broadcasting Standards.

While similar orders have been passed in the past but the question that needs to be asked is if this tokenism has helped in stopping the spread of communal hatred in society. Have hate crimes like mob lynching in the country ceased?  My answer, after looking seriously at the ground situation today, is an emphatic ‘No’.  The lethal virus of hate among different communities, between the majority and minority communities, continues to be present in the content of media organisations particularly the audio-visual channels and digital platforms.

Experts say that such orders have lost their efficacy since they are too little and too late as hate programmes have already damaged the inter-communal environment considerably for which the society has paid a heavy price. The industry needs exemplary punishment that may discourage the profit oriented media outfits to look for other ways to increase their TRP. (Words 1040)

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