Every festive season, primetime TV news finds a new communal bogey to peddle – from “garba jihad” to “love jihad”. This year was no different.

Now, nearly one year after Zee News invented “mehendi jihad”, the News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority has reprimanded the channel for breaching neutrality and journalistic ethics. It has told the channel to take down all videos carrying this content within a week. 

Newslaundry had detailed how the channel wasn’t alone in propagating such theories. Several other channels had amplified claims by Hindutva outfits about “garba jihad”, in the wake of a series of attacks by Hindutva footsoldiers on Muslim men during Navratri festivities in Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Under the garb of “garba jihad”, Hindu vigilantes accused Muslim men of entering garba venues and leching at Hindu women to carry out “love jihad”.

This is neither the first time the NBDSA has pulled up the channel for its coverage (here, here, here and here).

In its latest order, the authority has slammed Zee News for failing to uphold journalistic ethics in its “mehendi jihad” coverage or present any opposing viewpoints.

In a series of broadcasts between October 17 and 20, 2024, Zee News aired claims of Hindu groups alleging that Muslim people spat in mehndi before applying it to Hindu women. The coverage claimed that Muslims hid their religious identity with the intention of fraudulently marrying Hindu women and then forcing them to change their religion. It conveyed that Muslim men work as mehndi artists to exchange phone numbers with Hindu women.

The order dated September 9 came based on Pune-based activist Indrajit Ghorpade’s complaint. Ghorpade alleged that the channel, while airing these broadcasts, failed to fact-check the misinformation, condemn the threats and abuses against the Muslim community, and present an opposing viewpoint. The channel, Ghorpade accused, contributed towards spreading communal divide and spreading anti-Muslim fear and hatred through tickers, thumbnails, and headlines, amounting to a violation of the Code of Ethics and Guidelines, specifically accuracy, neutrality, objectivity, communal harmony, hate speech, defamation, etc.

The NBDSA directed the broadcaster to remove the videos of the impugned broadcasts, if still available, from the website of the channel, or YouTube, and remove all hyperlinks.

Referring to the broadcasts, NBDSA observed, “...The broadcaster, while running these tickers, did not issue any clarification that these were the statements made by third parties, nor any endorsement to the effect that these tickers did not represent the views of the broadcaster.”

NBDSA observed that while it cannot comment on the subject of the broadcast itself, which is part of editorial discretion and is protected under the freedom of speech and expression, “it was necessary at this juncture to remind the media of the role it plays as the fourth pillar of democracy in shaping public discourse. When dealing with potentially sensitive subject matters, it would behove the broadcasters to critically examine the content they air, to ensure that the same.”

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