Trigger Warning: Violence
In the last week of August, two horrific hate crimes against Muslims — the lynching of 25-year-old Sabir Malik in Haryana and the brutal assault on 72-year-old Haji Ashraf in a train in Maharashtra — sent shock waves across the country. However, many of the mainstream TV news channels, which air fiery debates on communal issues on a regular basis, either chose to ignore them completely in their prime-time segments or barely mentioned them.
While Republic TV chose not to report any of the hate crimes, let alone host prime-time debates on them, channels like NDTV, Aaj Tak and Times Now barely mentioned the incidents, but did not consider them important enough to be discussed on prime-time shows hosted by ‘star’ anchors. India Today and Zee News, in sharp contrast, hosted prime-time debates and reported on the hate crimes in depth.
Sabir Malik Lynched in Haryana on the Suspicion of Cooking and Consuming Beef
On August 27, 25-year-old Sabir Malik, a Muslim migrant worker from West Bengal, was allegedly beaten to death in Haryana’s Charkhi Dadri district by members of a self-proclaimed ‘cow-vigilante’ group on the suspicion of cooking and consuming beef. Eight people, including two minors, were arrested for the assault. The incident gained widespread attention after a horrifying video of the lynching went viral on social media.
This story was originally published in altnews.in. Read the full story here.
