The NBSA fined News18 Kannada Rs. 1 lakh and Suvarna News Rs. 50,000 for inciting religious hatred

For their coverage of the Tablighi Jamaat incident in March 2020, the News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) fined News18 Kannada Rs. 1 lakh and Suvarna News Rs. 50,000.

The Tablighi Jamaat incident occurred in March 2020, when the Nizamuddin district of Delhi was blocked on March 30 after discovering numerous people who had attended a religious event hosted by the Muslim organization Tablighi Jamaat in March had been infected with Coronavirus.

Between March 13 and 24, at least 16,500 individuals attended Tablighi Jamaat's headquarters in Nizamuddin. As a result, several news publications have blamed the Muslim community for the development of COVID.

The NBSA decided that how specific programs were aired on News18 Kannada was offensive and based on guesswork. 'Do you know how Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz has transmitted Coronavirus to the nation' and 'How many have gone to Delhi's Jamaat Congregation from Karnataka' were the titles of the two programs that aired on April 1, 2020.

"The tone, tenor, and language (of the programs) were crass, prejudiced, and disrespectful. The programs were prejudiced, inflammatory, and crossed all boundaries of good taste without concerns for feelings of a religious group. It was aimed at promoting and inciting hatred between communities," the NBSA said in its order.

The NBSA claimed that six Suvarna News broadcasts between March 31, 2020, and April 4, 2020, lacked objectivity and impartiality and were overtly biassed against a particular faith.

"The titles of the programs had an insidious effect which could incite communal violence," the NBSA said.

The NBSA decided that several of the visuals broadcast by Times Now did not verify the allegations made by the anchor on the program titled "Is Tablighi Jamaat willfully sabotaging India."

"The manner tenor and words used by the anchor could have been avoided," the NBSA said