Key Points :
- The Supreme Court stayed the broadcasting of a Sudarshan TV show on ‘UPSC Jihad’ citing offensive pictorial representations as the reason.
- The program called ‘Bindas Bol’ had claimed it had a major expose on the infiltration of the Muslim community into the government services
- The program alleged that the entry of Muslim candidates into the government services is funded by terror organizations through an NGO called the Zakat Foundation as reported by The Wire.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the broadcast of Sudarshan TV’s show ‘Bindas Bol’ program that claimed it had a major expose on the conspiracy of the Muslim community to inflitrate into government services.
“The Supreme Court staying something is like a nuclear missile. But we had to step in because nobody was taking any action,” Justice D Y Chandrachud said on the matter.
“While we respect freedom of media, let this message to go to the media as well that any community shouldn’t become a target. Ultimately, we all exist as a nation, which must be cohesive and not against any community,” he further added.
The Supreme Court expressed apprehensions about the pictorial representations and hurtful symbolism used to describe the community observing that the show “contained a pictorial representation of a Muslim with a beard, skull cap and green face, with flames in the background.”
The Bench presiding over the hearing has expressed concern that the show “maligns an entire community” and its content is “hurtful” and “offensive” to the entire Muslim community.
The Court further clarified that it does not mean to interfere with investigative journalism saying,“We have to protect free speech. Equally, we have a constitutional duty to protect human dignity. That’s as equally important.”
Suresh Chavhanke’s Sudarshan News said it has no ill-will against any community or individual.
Sudarshan TV’s lawyer, Divan clarified his client was pursuing an investigative report on alleged terror links of some of the organisations which gave donations to Zakat Foundation, which coaches civil service aspirants. He submitted that “it is not that all contributors to Zakat Foundation are terror-linked. However, some contributors are linked to organisations or are organisations that fund extremist groups.”
The Supreme court further questioned Sudarshan News as to how it planned on addressing these concerns.
The matter will be heard next on Monday.
