The News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) is a self-regulatory body of private TV channels and represents private television news, current affairs, and digital news broadcasters. NBDSA has issued several orders censoring the news channels that violated the code of conduct, ethics, and guidelines and aired misleading, communal, and hate news targeting the Muslim community. NBDSA has issued an order against two news channels, News Nation for a debate that aired on their channel with the agenda called “Conversion Jihad”. Second, notice has been issued against Zee news for describing the member of Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), who has formerly served the country as civil servants, as “cunning and gang”.
NBDSA, which is a self-regulatory body of private news channels, has issued some orders this month. Times Now was asked to take down the videos covering Delhi Pogroms of February 2020, in which news anchors were alleged not to conduct the debates in an “impartial and objective manner”. Apart from Times now, Zee News was also asked to take down the videos covering the farmer’s protests against the three contentious farm bills and calling the protesting farmers “Khalistani”.
The NGO Citizens for Justice and Peace filed their complaint against the programs that News Nation airs daily, which are communal and reflect hatred. The complaint said that Deepak Chaurasia during his show named “Desh ki behas” debated “Conversion Jihad” on November 06, 2020, which is a made-up term referring to the conversion of Hindus by Muslims. Deepak Chaurasia, the anchor of the debate, was “selling hate by insinuating that the ‘Hindustan’ we are living in was no longer safe for Hindus”, the complaint highlighted.
After going through the complaint and reviewing the entire footage of the show concluded that certain statements made by the anchor and captions such as “Memchand Zinda hai Jamaat sharminda hai”; “500- Hindu Kaise banaye Muslim?” that was aired during the program violated guidelines abide by religious and societal harmony. The order, issued by the news body on November 13, asserted that the broadcaster has submitted a general response and apologized if the statement has hurt the sentiments of members of a particular community.
The order also mentioned, “However, it had failed to submit any specific reply to the grievances of the complainant”. NBDSA witnessed that the broadcasters in response to the previous complaints and hearings expressed regrets and promised to stick to the Code of Ethics and Guidelines and take relevant action.
NBDSA in response to the submissions made by the broadcasters stated “there was a need for introspection on the part of the broadcaster, and it should take remedial actions/measures against anchors who fail to remain neutral and impartial during broadcasts.” They also suggested that the anchors should be trained in manners and conduct to hold these debates and shows.
As the broadcasters apologized and assured the NBDSA that they are in process of taking remedial measures, the news body decided to close the complaint by advising them to be more careful about crucial things like these in the future and also warned if such programs are telecast again, then serious actions will be taken against the broadcasters by NBDSA.
A complaint was made by The Constitutional Conduct Group against Sudhir Chaudhary of Zee News for maligning the news body in his program that was telecasted on November 02, 2020. NBDSA also looked upon that complaint. CGC, in an open letter, asked the advertisers not to fund the channels that spread “hatred and communal disharmony”. Zee news defended the broadcast by accusing CCG of bias and attempting to stop the media from telecasting important national issues.
The NBDSA asserted that the news channel has surely crossed boundaries by questioning the credibility of the members of The Constitutional Conduct Group by calling them ‘cunning and gang’.
