Asking Times Now Navbharat to edit a thumbnail, the News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority has decided to issue an advisory to all broadcasters to ensure that tickers and thumbnails conform to the actual version of the discussion.
The NBDSA was hearing a complaint filed by Pune-based techie and activist Indrajeet Ghorpade in September last year. The complaint accused Times Now Navbharat of using anti-Muslim thumbnails and of a communal slant in its coverage of the Shimla mosque demolition controversy last year.
The complainant submitted that the channel had uploaded nearly 150 videos on the mosque in Shimla within 48 hours. “The reporter spoke to four Hindu women in the vicinity and questioned them whether there had been an increase in the Muslim population and whether there was an atmosphere of fear. The questions were leading in nature, and the responses received from the women were a reflection of the damage that reportage, such as the impugned broadcast, had caused with their repeated anti-Muslim coverage.”
In its order on Monday, the NBDSA noted that the thumbnail text “and Musalman ladke hume. Jummeh ke din toh…” was inconsistent with the statements made by the women interviewed during the broadcast. “The thumbnail text gave the impression that Muslim men were harassing women though it was not so stated by the women interviewed. Thus, this was not only misleading but also not in the interest of communal harmony. In view of the above, finding that the inclusion of thumbnails did not project the correct version of the statements of the women interviewed, NBDSA held that the broadcaster had violated the Guidelines.”
The authority said that “in many programmes broadcast, due care is not taken in choosing the tickers and thumbnails, which give a distorted version of the actual narratives of the discussions/interviews. NBDSA expects that the tickers and thumbnails should conform to the actual version of the discussions/interviews.”
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