A woman chose her husband. Zee News called it ‘Love Jihad’. Called out, it claimed ‘balance’

The News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority has penalised Zee News Rs 1 lakh for broadcasts that dressed up a woman’s consensual marriage as a communal conspiracy – even while airing her own statement to the contrary.

The order, passed on May 28, 2026 by NBDSA Chairperson Justice A K Sikri (Retd), stems from a complaint filed by Utkarsh Mishra on June 11, 2025. It concerns three broadcasts aired on Zee News on May 26 and 27, 2025, covering an incident in the Indirapuram area of Ghaziabad involving a Hindu woman named Sonika, who had married a Muslim man named Akbar.

Sonika herself had issued a video statement saying she had married Akbar of her own free will and was leaving with her husband. The police had maintained that the arrest of the accused was based on an FIR filed by the girl’s family seeking further investigation. 

None of this stopped Zee News. 

Manufacturing outrage

Tickers running through the segments included: “Love Jihad kerke phans gaye Bhaijan”, “Bhaijan ko mehanga parha love Jihad”, “Hindu ladki ke peeche Akbar”, “Love Jihad pehchan chipakar?” “Pados me dukan...Love Jihad ko diya anjaam”, and “Love Jihad ka maamla... Yogi force legi faisla”.

Segment titles were no less incendiary. “UP Love Jihad Case: Love jihad maamla! Peedita ne bataya poora sach!” “Ghaziabad Love Jihad Case: Ghaziabad mein dharm ke dhoke par bawaal behisaab!”

One voice-over stated: “UP ke Ghaziabad mein Muslim ladke ko love jihad karna bhaari pad gaya” (In UP’s Ghaziabad, doing love jihad has cost the Muslim boy dearly) – framing a woman’s own marriage as something that had cost a Muslim man. Another concluded darkly that “zyaadatar Hinduon ke khilaf is jihaadi saazish ka pardaafaash hona chahiye” (this jihadist conspiracy against most Hindus must be exposed).

All of this aired even as the channel broadcast Sonika’s own video statement in which she said: “Mati se apne pati ke saath yahaan se ja rahi hoon” (I am leaving from here willingly, with my husband). 

The broadcaster’s remarkable about-face

When confronted before the NBDSA, Zee Media Corporation Limited offered a defence that bore little resemblance to what it had actually broadcast.

The channel claimed its reportage was “strictly confined to factual narration of the event” with “no intent or motive to sensationalise, communalise, or prejudge the matter”. It argued that the term “Love Jihad” was “organically employed by local residents” and was used merely as “a factual descriptor of the language and terminology circulating organically among the local population”. It further claimed to have “provided a platform for diverse viewpoints” by airing Sonika’s video statement.

This from a channel whose tickers had declared the incident a “Love Ka Jihad Jaal” (the jihad trap of love) and speculated whether Yogi Adityanath’s government would intervene. The defence of merely reporting what locals said might have carried some weight. Only had the channel’s anchors and voice-overs not independently characterised the marriage as a jihadist conspiracy through their own narration.

The broadcaster also invoked Article 19(1)(a), arguing the complaint was an attempt to “muzzle legitimate journalistic activity”. The NBDSA was not persuaded.

While the NBDSA acknowledged that factual reporting of the incident – the vandalism, the public unrest, the police action – would have been entirely unobjectionable, it was the manner of the coverage that crossed the line.

The authority found that the tickers and framing were “not only unwarranted but also egregious, especially given the woman’s clear and unequivocal statement, aired during the broadcasts, that she had married of her own volition”.

NBDSA held that by airing the impugned broadcasts, Zee News had violated the principles of impartiality, neutrality and fairness as well as racial and religious harmony.

The channel has been fined Rs 1 lakh and directed to remove the footage from its website, YouTube, and all platforms, including the removal of all hyperlinks, and to confirm compliance in writing within seven days.

In a separate order, the channel was among several networks admonished by the NBDSA over their coverage of an alleged sexual assault at a college in Bhopal and framing it as a case of jihad. The authority told all these channels, including News18 India, NDTV, ABP and Zee News, to remove these segments within a week.

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