Prasar Bharati Deletes Tweet On MEA Asking for Deportation of WSJ Reporter For 'Anti-India Behaviour'

On its official Twitter handle, the national public broadcaster Prasar Bharati on March 13 said that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has asked the Indian Embassy in the US to cater to a request "for immediate deportation" of Eric Bellman, the South Asia Deputy Bureau Chief of Wall Street Journal, for "anti-India behaviour".

PBNS News' tweet came a week after Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar had intervened to revoke a 48-hour ban on two Malayalam news channels for allegedly "siding" with one community and being "critical towards Delhi Police and RSS" in its reporting, The Indian Express reported.

Prasar Bharati, later on, Friday, March 13, withdrew the tweet on Bellman after Raveesh Kumar, MEA's official spokesperson, tweeted: "A complaint was registered against @EricBellmanWSJ, @WSJIndia by a private individual on Government's Online Grievance Redressal platform. Referring to the complaint to the related office is a routine matter as per the standard procedure. No such decision on deportation has been taken by us."

According to MEA sources, the issue has not to be referred to the Indian Embassy in the US, but to the Under Secretary (Consular) in MEA - as the public broadcaster incorrectly reported.

On an earlier occasion, on February 28, some other tweets were directed at Wall Street Journal by the public broadcaster, claiming that a wrong report on the death of IB staffer Ankit Sharma, who was killed in the Delhi riots, was published in the newspaper.

Claiming that Sharma's brother, Ankur, had "discredited" WSJ, it told Prasar Bharati that the newspaper was "lying" in its report. Further, it shared a screenshot that said that Ankur claimed that the mob that attacked Ankit Sharma shouted 'Jai Shri Ram'.

PBNS News, in its latest tweets directed at the newspaper, attached screenshots of purported documents. It also tagged MEA and the Indian Embassy in the US.

"Ministry of External Affairs today asked the Indian Embassy in the US to look into the request for the immediate deportation of @WSJ's South Asia Deputy Bureau Chief @EricBellmanWSJ, who is based in India, for "anti-India behaviour"," it posted.

In another tweet, it said: "A complaint in this connection had been lodged with MEA on March 2 after police complaints had been lodged against @WSJ for misreporting on Delhi riots, particularly about the killing of IB officer Ankit Sharma."

In just over an hour, it tweeted again, "Sources inform PBNS that the above is a private complaint registered with the grievance cell and no decision has been taken on the complaint at this time. As a matter of routine processing, the matter was referred to the appropriate department for examination and nothing further needs to be read into the matter – Sources to PBNS."

After the MEA's intervention, however, the tweet claiming that the Ministry had asked the Embassy to look into the deportation was taken down by the PBNS handle.

It later retweeted that the MEA spokesperson has stated that no decision has been stated. "Clarification from @MEAIndia on earlier tweets by PBNS that had wrongly interpreted a routine procedure related to a private complaint." It said: "The earlier tweet has accordingly been withdrawn," it added.

Also Read: Malayalam Media Channels Banned For Being "Critical Of Police, RSS" In Their Delhi Riots Coverage, Back On-Air