India’s self-regulatory news body has determined that Zee News and Times Now Navbharat breached its Code of Ethics by airing Islamophobic and misleading reports related to the so-called “Mehendi Jihad” and “Love Jihad” conspiracy theories.
The News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) issued separate rulings following complaints lodged last year by media researcher and journalist Indrajeet Ghorpade, who accused the channels of disseminating anti-Muslim misinformation and inciting hate speech.
In its findings, the NBDSA concluded that Zee News contravened ethical standards in multiple reports claiming that Muslim men, posing as henna artists, were targeting Hindu women for forced conversions. The channel presented segments with inflammatory headlines such as “Mehendi Jihad par de dana-dan” and “Lathi se lais rahenge, jihadiyon ko rokenge,” asserting that Muslim artists “spit into mehendi” prior to applying it on Hindu women as a method of luring them into conversion.
Ghorpade contended that the channel amplified violent anti-Muslim rhetoric, encouraged the boycott of Muslim mehendi artists, and neglected to verify claims or include opposing viewpoints. “Despite the channel promoting these violent threats against Muslim artists, NBDSA merely ‘admonished’ the channel and directed it to remove the videos, a year after they were initially broadcast on television and social media,” Ghorpade stated. He noted that the NBDSA holds the authority to impose fines ranging from ₹200,000 to ₹2.5 million but chose not to exercise this power, leaving media entities unmotivated to cease communal division.
In a separate incident, the NBDSA found Times Now Navbharat in violation of ethical guidelines regarding its coverage of a controversial “Love Jihad” case from Uttar Pradesh. The channel reported on the sentencing of a Muslim man, Mohammed Aalim, to life imprisonment for allegedly coercing a Hindu woman to convert to Islam. The woman later testified that she was pressured by her family and Hindu right-wing groups to file a false complaint, a significant detail absent from the channel’s coverage.
“Times Now Navbharat repeated Judge Diwakar’s statements without applying any journalistic scrutiny,” Ghorpade remarked. The NBDSA acknowledged that the channel’s tickers, such as “Uttar Pradesh mein Love Jihad, toolkit Pakistan” and “Jhuthe naam ka afsana, maqsad musalman banana,” violated the Code of Ethics but overlooked the omission of the woman’s confession from the coverage.
Ghorpade raised concerns about the broader implications of this situation, stating, “We have Hindu judges protecting Hindu extremists, a news channel endorsing their judgments, and self-regulatory bodies led by retired judges defending the news channels. What else could possibly go wrong?”
While the NBDSA instructed both Zee News and Times Now Navbharat to remove the contentious videos and issue public apologies, it refrained from levying any financial penalties. Ghorpade pointed out that these cases illustrate the shortcomings of the self-regulatory framework in holding powerful media organizations accountable for communal propaganda and called for increased awareness and independent oversight of broadcast media.
Tags: Mehendi Jihad, NBDSA, Zee News, Times Now Navbharat, anti-Muslim coverage
Hashtags: #Mehendi #Jihad #NBDSA #finds #Zee #News #Times #Navbharat #violated #ethics #code #antiMuslim #coverage
