NL Interviews: Gauhar Raza on NBSA’s ruling and the way forward for Indian media

On September 1, at around 4 pm, eminent poet and scientist Gauhar Raza received an email from the National Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA), a self-regulatory body of private TV news channels. It was the copy of an order directing Zee News, one of India’s leading Hindi news channels, to issue an apology, pay a fine of Rs 1 lakh and remove all links to a programme titled ‘Afzal Premi Gang ka Mushaira’, which it had aired between March 9 and March 15 last year. The programme showed Raza as an admirer of Afzal Guru, the 2001 Parliament attack case convict, who was hanged in 2013.

Raza filed a complaint with the NBSA in April last year after reaching out to the channel on why it aired the show without seeking his version. Speaking to Newslaundry, he said the channel had given him a response similar to its explanation to the industry ombudsman. He hadn’t heard from the NBSA for a year until it issued the aforementioned directive to Zee News. However, he said that he was always positive and was hoping for justice to be done. “NBA has rejected their claims,” he said. 

While Zee News stands by its story, the channel’s editor-in-chief, Sudhir Chaudhary, told Mint that the channel was contemplating legal remedies. Raza, however, is not contemplating further legal action against the channel. “If they apologise, if they are penalised, that is more than sufficient as far as I’m concerned,” he said. 

Watch the interview here as he explains why he made the complaint and how the NBSA’s ruling reinstated his belief in the democratic set-up.