Editors Guild slams TV channels for ‘spewing hatred’
Seema Musfata, president of Editors Guild of India Photo Credit Twitter Seema Mustafa
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, June 8: The Editors Guild of India in a statement on Wednesday slammed the television channels, flagging that they’re deliberately creating circumstances that target vulnerable communities by spewing hate.
“Editors Guild of India is disturbed by the irresponsible conduct of some national news channels for deliberately creating circumstances that target vulnerable communities by spewing hatred towards them and their beliefs,” said Seema Mustafa, president of the Editors Guild of India.
Expectedly, there was a riot in Kanpur accompanied by an unprecedented trenchant reaction from many countries that were offended by the remarks of the ruling party spokespersons, said Mustafa.
“In their angry statements they wondered about India’s commitment to human rights and freedom of religion,” said the Editors Guild while taking note of the Arabian backlash to the comments and tweets of the BJP spokespersons Nupur Sharma and Navin Jindal purportedly against Prophet Muhammad in their television debates in the wake of the Gyanvapi Mosque row.
The Guild noted “the incident that caused unnecessary embarrassment to the country could have been avoided if some of the TV outlets had been mindful of the nation’s constitutional commitment to secularism, as well as the journalistic ethics and guidelines that the Press Council of India has issued to handle a volatile communal situation”.
It further stated that some of these channels instead prompted by the desire to increase viewership and profit were “seemingly inspired by the values of Radio Rwanda whose incendiary broadcast caused a genocide in the African nation”.
“EGI demands that these channels pause and take a critical look at what they have done by giving legitimacy to divisive and toxic voices that has made the national discourse coarse and the gap between communities unbridgeable,” added the Guild in its statement.
It further stated that the Editors Guild of India also demands stricter vigilance by broadcaster and journalist bodies to prevent a recurrence of this from taking place. The media is in place to strengthen the Constitution and the law and not break it through sheer irresponsibility and absence of accountability, it added.
The BJP has expelled both Nupur Sharma and Navin Jindal after the furore in the Arab world against their incendiary remarks.
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