The News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) has fined Zee News Rs 25,000 for forcibly interviewing the mother of a murder accused and found that the channel violated its Code of Ethics related to Good Taste and Decency, and Privacy.
The order, passed by NBDSA Chairperson Justice A.K. Sikri (Retd.) on May 19, 2026, comes alongside two other orders issued that day against the channel for broadcasts that falsely implicated Muslims in communally charged incidents. In both cases, the NBDSA acknowledged the violations but stopped short of imposing any meaningful penalties.
A complainant in all three cases, Indrajeet Ghorpade, has now written to NBDSA requesting it to reconsider its orders and pass fresh ones proportionate to the violations. He has also warned that if the regulator fails to act, he will approach the High Court.
‘A clear violation of the principles of good taste and decency’
Raja Raghuvanshi, a businessman from Indore, was allegedly killed by three hired men on the orders of his newlywed wife, Sonam and her lover, Raj Kushwaha, during their honeymoon in Meghalaya in May 2025. It became a high-profile case that attracted significant media attention.
Kushwaha was arrested in connection with the crime. On June 10, 2025, a Zee News reporter visited the home of Kushwaha’s mother. Even though she looked visibly distressed and explicitly asked the press to leave her alone, the reporter continued shoving a microphone in her face. The footage of Kushwaha’s mother breaking down was not only broadcast on the channel but was also subsequently uploaded to its digital platforms.
Ghorpade, who filed the complaint on June 11, 2025, questioned how this practice could be considered “sensitive, in good taste, ethical, and in compliance with the Code of Ethics and Specific Guidelines.”
After reviewing the footage and hearing submissions from both sides, the NBDSA found that “no meaningful purpose had been served by interviewing the mother of the accused regarding the alleged crime committed by her son, especially when she was visibly distressed.” The broadcast, it held, was “in clear violation of the principles of good taste and decency and also breached the guidelines concerning privacy, under which broadcasters are expected to exercise discretion and sensitivity when reporting on distressing situations.” Moreover, it noted that the channel's editors had made “a conscious decision not only to air it on the channel but also to upload it later to its digital platforms.”
The channel was fined Rs 25,000 and directed to remove the footage from its website, YouTube, and all digital platforms within seven days. NBDSA also suggested that it should train its field reporters to prevent such violations in the future.
The temple that wasn’t in Bangladesh
On December 1, 2024, Zee News broadcast footage of the demolition of traditional Kali Mata idols in Sultanpur, West Bengal’s Bardhaman district. This is a 600-year-old practice in which, every 12 years, the statue of a deity is broken down and carried to a local pond for immersion, following which a new statue is made the next year. The channel, however, falsely claimed the visuals showed Muslims in Bangladesh attacking Hindu temples and desecrating Hindu idols.
Alt News had fact-checked this misrepresentation and brought it to the channel’s attention, but no corrective action was taken. The channel had even failed to respond to Ghorpade's initial complaint filed in December 2024. NBDSA found that the broadcaster had “violated the principle of Accuracy as enshrined in the Code of Conduct by airing unrelated visuals,” but closed the matter with a mere caution, treating the channel’s eventual removal of the video as “a mitigating factor”.
The glass that wasn’t a conspiracy
On July 13, 2025, Zee News covered an incident during the Kanwar Yatra in Delhi, where broken glass was found scattered on the road.
The channel ran a 55-minute debate replete with leading questions, communally charged tickers, and AI-generated images of a Muslim man spitting in food and juice. Panellists on the show were making uncontested claims linking the incident to a Muslim conspiracy against Hindu pilgrims. Later, however, the Delhi Police had confirmed that the glass came from an accidental fall of panels from an e-rickshaw.
NBDSA found that the channel’s conduct was “highly improper” and had “the potential to stigmatise a community and create communal disharmony,” and that the broadcaster had “clearly violated the guidelines on Racial and Religious Harmony and Accuracy under the Code of Conduct.” It also noted that the post-Delhi Police clarification aired by the channel was “less than a minute long and appeared to be lip service rather than corrective action, particularly given that the original broadcast lasted 55 minutes.”
Despite these findings, NBDSA only admonished the broadcaster and directed the removal of the content, imposing no financial penalty.
A fourth strike within reach
NBDSA’s own regulations provide that upon a fourth violation, the Authority may impose a fine of up to 1 percent of the channel's annual turnover, capped at Rs. 25 lakhs, and can suspend a programme for up to a week, suspend an anchor for up to a month, or even recommend suspension or revocation of the broadcaster’s licence.
With three orders against Zee News now on record in the past year alone, that threshold is well within reach. Separately, complainant Syed Kaab Rashidi had earlier noted before NBDSA that the regulator has passed approximately 27 orders against Zee News since 2019 for broadcasting biased content.
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