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News regulator fines Zee News Rs 2 lakh for ‘inflammatory’ coverage of pro-Palestine slogans at AMU

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The News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority on Friday fined Zee News Rs 2 lakh for its coverage of pro-Palestine slogans that were shouted during a student protest at Aligarh Muslim University in August, Live Law reported.

The authority noted that the broadcast had violated its code of conduct.

The order was passed on a complaint by Talha Mannan, an alumnus of Aligarh Muslim University.

On August 12, Mannan had delivered an approximately 18-minute long speech during a student protest against a fee hike and seeking the restoration of the Students’ Union.

Mannan alleged that Zee News had subsequently broadcast selective 10 second to 15 second clips of slogans shouted during the protest that portrayed the demonstrators’ expressions of solidarity with Palestine as “criminal or anti-national conduct”, Live Law reported.

The petition concerned two Zee News programmes aired on August 16: “Deshhit” and “DNA”.

The “Deshhit” episode was titled “AMU mein ‘Filisteen premi gang’... ‘Yogi style’ mein hoga ilaaj!” or “Palestine-loving gang’ at AMU... will be dealt with in ‘Yogi style’!”

The “DNA” episode was titled “Fees maafi waale aandolan mein ‘Filisteen zindabad’ kahaan se aa gaya? Aligarh Muslim University” or “How did ‘Long live Palestine’ come into a protest for fee waiver? Aligarh Muslim University”.

The news regulator found that the protest involved several demands, including opposition to a...