An Indian news channel Republic TV was fined £20,000 by British regulator, the Office of Communications(Ofcom), for airing hate speech against Pakistan. The channel is known for its pro-government stance and featuring a radical host Arnab Goswami.
During a program Republic TV’s host Arnab Gouswami created an impression that all Pakistanis are terrorists as “their scientists, doctors, their leaders, politicians(all are terrorists)..,even their sports people”.
The program “Poochta Hai Bharat” was aired on 6 September 2019 which was also broadcasted on its UK services, In the 35-minute discussion between Arnab Goswami and guests, Pakistani scientists were declared “thieves” while Pakistani people were described as “beggers”. Ofcom mentioned that it had received several complains against the controversial host, Goswami for using inappropriate language on media which was against the country’s standards.
“We concluded that this was a serious breach of our rules which warranted the imposition of statutory sanctions. These include: a financial penalty of £20,000, payable to HM Paymaster General; a direction not to repeat the programme; and a direction to broadcast a statement of our findings on a date – and in a form – to be determined by Ofcom.” the regulatory authority remarked.
However, Republic TV has also responded by stating, “figures of speech not intended to be taken literally, which Asian viewers would have understood clearly”.
