UK’s Ofcom imposes £20,000 fine on Indian TV channel for hate speech, inciting hatred towards Pakistani people
The British TV regulatory authority, Office of Communications (Ofcom), has slapped a fine of £20,000 on India’s nationalist Republic TV channel for broadcasting “hate speech” against Pakistan.
The fine was imposed on Worldview Media Network Limited that owns the license to operate Republic Bharat in the United Kingdom. The owner is barred from repeating the program in the UK.
The offending comments were made in a September 6, 2019, episode of “Poochta Hai Bharat,” a daily current affairs program in Hindi.
Offensive statements
The program intended to discuss India’s attempt to land a spacecraft on the moon turned into a wider discussion on Pakistan-India relations.
Ofcom “found that this program contained uncontextualized hate speech and that this content was potentially highly offensive” and that the program’s presenter and some of the guests conveyed the view that all Pakistanis were terrorists.
The statements made in the program said: “their scientists, doctors, their leaders, politicians all are terrorists. Even their sports people” and “every child is a terrorist over there. Every child is a terrorist. You are dealing with a terrorist entity.”
The Indian TV presenter, addressing Pakistan and Pakistanis, said: “We make scientists, you make terrorists.”
One of the guests on the TV show, Indian General K.K. Sinha, said: “Oh you useless people. Beggars… We are coming to the PoK [Pakistan-occupied Kashmir], to the Gilgit-Baltistan, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa…We are going to come, be ready. People in your country are shivering with fear that the Indian army may come.”
Filled with rage and animosity, the Indian general went on to say that “We will barge inside your home in Baluchistan, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in Karachi, in your area, in Multan, in Rawalpindi and kill you. From Lahore, from Karachi to Gilgit-Balistan when we will have control.”
Fined for hatred and intolerance towards Pakistan
The Ofcom report said that it “considered these statements to be expressions of hatred based on intolerance of Pakistani people based on their nationality alone, and that the broadcast of these statements spread, incited, promoted and justified such intolerance towards Pakistani people among viewers.”
Commenting on the despicable remarks against Pakistan by former India general, the British regulatory said that “We considered however that these statements, made by a retired Major General from the Indian Army, which clearly threatened that the Indian military would attack Pakistani civilians in their homes, were an expression of hatred and desire to kill by a figure of authority. In our view, the broadcast of these statements also promoted hatred and intolerance towards Pakistani people.”
In the program, the Indians referred to Pakistanis as “terrorists,” “beggars,” “thieves” and “backward,” as well as comparing them to donkeys, they were also referred to as “Paki.” Ofcom said this was “a racist term that is highly offensive and unacceptable to a UK audience.”
Ofcom concluded that the Indian TV program was in breach of Rules 2.3 (offensive and discriminatory language), 3.2 (hate speech) and 3.3 (abusive and derogatory treatment of individuals, religions or communities) of the Code.
The decision was taken despite an apology broadcasted by Republic Bharat in English and Hindi a total of 280 times.
Republic TV and its co-founder and main anchor Goswami are considered highly sympathetic to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).