Sudarshan News case: Dangerous, shameful abuse of media freedom

The Supreme Court has barred television channel Sudarshan News from telecasting a controversial programme on the entry of Muslims into the country’s civil services on the ground that the programme is “insidious’’ and is aimed at vilifying the Muslim community. Four episodes of the programme, called “Bindas Bol”, have been aired and the ban will apply to the remaining six episodes.

The court was scathing in its order and its observations about the programme, which insinuated that the rising number of Muslims taking the civil services exams and succeeding in recent years is, in fact, part of a conspiracy on the part of the community. The head of the news channel called this “UPSC jihad”. The court rightly saw this as an attempt to bring the community into public hatred and disrepute and asserted that as a custodian of constitutional values, the court had to stop the programme.

Usually, courts do not prevent the telecast of programmes or the publication of books, respecting freedom of speech and expression of citizens. In fact, the Supreme Court had, in an earlier hearing, declined to impose a pre-broadcast ban on the programme. But it has now noted that there is a change in circumstances because of the tone and tenor of the programme that emerged after four episodes were telecast from September 11 to 14.

The court also held that the channel’s claims cast aspersions on the credibility of the exams conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which applied the same standards to every candidate, irrespective of caste, community and other considerations. The channel’s claims are wrong also because there has been no unusual increase in the number of Muslim candidates.

Some rise in the success that Muslim candidates are seeing is only a reflection of the improvement in the educational standards and aspirations of members of the community. The fact is, there is only a 3% representation of the community in the services while it forms 15% of the population. It is clear that the Sudarshan News programme is part of a hate campaign, based on falsehood and disinformation. The channel head warned in public about the consequences of “jihadis from Jamia’’ holding positions of authority in the country.

The campaign against the minorities is rising in the country and the campaigners are inventing new themes and topics to spread hatred and to harass them. The most blatant falsehoods are being peddled, tainting the whole community in an attempt to exclude them from society, government, legislature and jobs. The court’s observations on the misuse of media freedom in this context deserve consideration.