The News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority on Thursday directed news channel Times Now Navbharat to remove the video of its September 2022 show on Muslim men entering garba events, for giving the programme a “communal tilt”, Live Law reported.
The media body’s order was passed on complaints filed by two persons who alleged that the news channel’s show targeted the entire Muslim community and violated the broadcasting standards.
The complaints pertained to a show aired by Times Now Navbharat on September 29, 2022 about the assault of a Muslim man by Bajrang Dal members at a garba event. The channel claimed that the episode focused on women’s safety at public events and it highlighted an incident where inappropriate photographs of women had been taken by men at the garba event.
However, the ticker during the broadcast, anchored by the channel’s editor-in-chief Navika Kumar, added a communal angle to the reporting, one of the complainants alleged.
“In a country like India where diverse people of all backgrounds come together to celebrate festivals, such a question was raised by the anchor on national television based solely on some reports which claimed that some boys had ‘allegedly’ misbehaved during the garba festival,” one of the complainants argued.
The complainant also alleged that Kumar “baselessly” questioned why Muslims do not attend other Hindu festivals and “why they only love garba”.
This story was originally published in scroll.in. Read the full story here .
