Republic TV owner Arnab Goswami’s Hindi news channel in Britain, Republic Bharat, has been fined £20,000 by the UK’s broadcasting regulator for promoting and justifying hatred towards Pakistani people.
On Tuesday Ofcom imposed the Rs 20 lakh fine on Worldview Media Network Limited which holds the license for Republic Bharat, which targets the Hindi speaking community in the UK, for various breaches of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code.
Ofcom has also imposed a direction on the channel to broadcast a statement of Ofcom’s findings and not to repeat the programme.
The fine was in relation to an episode of daily current affairs programme Poochta Hai Bharat broadcast on 6 September 2019 presented by Goswami, which Ofcom said amounted to “a sustained and repeated attack on Pakistani people”.
The station had at that time only been broadcasting since August 2019 in Britain. Ofcom said it had identified the programme during “routine monitoring” and commissioned a translation.
The broadcast featured a debate between Goswami and three Indian and three Pakistani guests relating to India’s attempt to send the spacecraft Chandrayaan 2 on its mission to the moon on 22 July 2019.
The debate involved a comparison of India’s space exploration and technological advancements compared to Pakistan, and Pakistan’s “alleged terrorist activities against India”, Ofcom said in its published decision.
The debate was set against the backdrop of increased tensions between India and Pakistan following India’s revocation of Article 370.