NBDSA penalises TV channels for ‘violating’ broadcasting ethics

The News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) has penalised some television channels for news shows, as per media reports.

The action has been taken in response to concerns raised by activist Indrajeet Ghorpade who has pointed out inaccuracies and breaches of impartiality, objectivity, neutrality, and accuracy as per the Code of Ethics & Broadcasting Standards. The NBDSA also found violations of policies pertaining to preventing hate speech, running programs with anchors, and reporting situations without using communal narratives. 

The NBDSA noted in its ruling that the media is free to hold discussions on whatever subject it chooses. “Programmes that target a whole community for the actions of a small number of people, however, ought to be avoided.”

According to a media report, 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. "Some such instances should not lead to making generalised 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," the news body noted.