Observer Report
London
The Office of Communications (Ofcom), the British TV regulatory authority has slapped a fine of £20,000 on India’s fiercely nationalist and popular Republic television’s Hindi channel. The punishment is for broadcasting hate speech against Pakistan.
In a detailed verdict, Ofcom said that Republic Bharat’s “Poochta Hai Bharat” programme – the evening primetime show hosted by controversial Arnab Goswami – had failed to comply with its broadcasting rules, The Wire reported.
Republic TV and its combative founder and main anchor Goswami are largely seen as sympathetic to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
According to Ofcom, an episode, shown on September 6, 2019, featured “comments made by the host and some of his guests that amounted to hate speech against Pakistani people, and derogatory and abusive treatment of Pakistani people. The content was also potentially offensive and was not sufficiently justified by the context.”
By the time the episode aired, Ofcom had already notified Republic that it had been receiving a number of complaints on content broadcast by it in relation to “highly pejorative references to members of the Pakistani community.” Worldview Media Network Limited, the licensee which airs Republic Bharat in the UK, will also need to broadcast a statement of Ofcom’s findings and is barred from repeating the programme in the UK.
