NBSA directs Aaj Tak to remove certain Tablighi Jamaat broadcasts from website, YouTube

The News Broadcasting Standards Authority has directed that certain Aaj Tak broadcasts about last year's Tablighi Jamaat be removed from the channel's website and YouTube, as well as other links.

The NBSA said there might have been "errors in the figures telecast", referring to Aaj Tak reporting on a spurt of Covid cases and linking them to the Tablighi Jamaat event. Hence, it asked that the video of these broadcasts be taken down.

In a statement issued on June 16, the NBSA said the media has "complete freedom to report on the Covid pandemic", but "such reporting must be done with accuracy, impartiality and neutrality".

The statement continued: "NBSA noted that the broadcaster had admitted that there may have been chances that there were some miscalculations as pointed out by the complaint, which were inadvertent, and the broadcaster had no intention to communalize the issue or malign any community."

Aaj Tak had aired the clips from its show, Desh Talk, between April 4 and 5, 2020. A complaint against its programming had been filed by one Farooque Imam, who claimed that Aaj Tak intended to "develop hatred in the minds of the people against a particular community" during the Covid pandemic.

Multiple news channels last year had blamed the Jamaat for the spread of Covid, using misinformation, communalism, hate speech and conspiracy theories to do so.

Last week, the NBSA also pulled up Kannada news channels News18 Kannada and Suvarna News and English news channel Times Now for their coverage of the Jamaat.