UK regulator slaps £20,000 fine on Indian private TV channel for allowing hate speech

Ofcom expressed concern at the number of breaches by news channel within a short time of operations in the UK

File image: Arnab Goswami inside a police van after he was arrested in Maharashtra in November (REUTERS)

The UK’s broadcasting watchdog, Ofcom, has imposed a fine of £20,000 on an Indian news channel, Republic Bharat, for allowing hate speech against Pakistani people.  

The regulator held that a debate aired by the channel on 6 September 2019 contained comments made by its host Arnab Goswami and some of his guests amounted to “hate speech against Pakistani people, and derogatory and abusive treatment of Pakistani people.”  

Though the Worldview Media Network Limited, which has the license for the broadcast of Republic Bharat in the UK, argued that such statements were “figures of speech not intended to be taken literally”, the regulator was not convinced.

It said that such statements made by a “retired major general from the Indian Army, which clearly threatened that the Indian military would attack Pakistani civilians in their homes, were an expression of hatred and desire to kill by a figure of authority.”  

“In our view the broadcast of these statements also promoted hatred and intolerance towards Pakistani people … the overall tone of the discussion was provocative, comparing Pakistanis to donkeys and monkeys,” held Ofcom.

It said that Pakistani contributors were repeatedly interrupted and afforded little time to make points which may potentially have provided a challenge or context.

The channel is being broadcast in the UK since August 2019. The regulator reveals that just a  couple of weeks before the programme in September 2019 the Worldview Media Network Limited was notified by them by a telephone call and by email that they were receiving a number of complaints about the channel making “highly pejorative references to members of the Pakistani community.”  

The UK regulator was informed that Republic Bharat had broadcast an apology “a total of 280 times” between 26 February-9 April, earlier this year, “at all hours of the day".

The Worldview Media Network Limited even emphasised that the public apology 280 times substantiates “how apologetic we are” and that the “particularly heavy rotation of apologies… demonstrates our efforts to convey a deep apology.”  

Ofcom welcomed the apology but said it did not consider that the “wording used would have conveyed to the audience the nature of” their concerns about the programme.  

It said that the Worldview Media Network Limited Licensee should be directed to broadcast a statement of Ofcom’s findings in this case, on a “date and in a form to be determined” by them.  

The channel also told the regulator that it has learnt from the “misjudgements made in this programme” and reiterated the measures it has put in place to avoid a repeat contravention.  

The Worldview Media Network Limited while arguing against the imposition of financial penalty said that “it seriously threatened its ability to sustain the Republic Bharat channel” explaining that they are running at a loss.

Ofcom said considering the number and nature of contraventions within the first year of the company’s operations in the UK is concerning and said given the number of breaches by the channel within a short time, the company should “attend a meeting to discuss its compliance arrangements".