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"Goswami Breaks Savarkar's Record": Republic TV Apologised 280 Times To British Media Watchdog
Writer: Navya Singh
Navya writes and speaks about matters that often do not come out or doesn’t see daylight. Defense and economy of the country is of special interest to her and a lot of her content revolves around that.
India, 24 Dec 2020 5:01 AM GMT | Updated 24 Dec 2020 8:38 AM GMT
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Republic TV aired the apology 280 times on its channel in the UK during all times of the day from February 26, 2020, to April 9, 2020.
Soon after Republic Bharat, Hindi news channel of Republic TV, was fined 20,000 pounds (roughly Rs 19.73 lakh) by United Kingdom's communications regulator Office of Communications on December 22, for broadcasting content that included "hate speech", the journalist has apologised 280 times to the regulator.
Arnab Goswami is now being compared with Hindutva icon Savarkar, who wrote letters to the British government for his release. Goswami aired an apology 280 times on its channel in the UK during all times of the day from February 26, 2020, to April 9, 2020.
The UK Broadcast regulator criticised views expressed by Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami in the channel's "Poochta Hai Bharat" programme aired on September 6, 2019, and mentioned that some guests violated its broadcasting norms.
The programme was related to India's Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft mission to the moon and "involved a comparison of India's space exploration and technological advancements compared to Pakistan, and Pakistan's alleged terrorist activities against Indian targets," the release noted.
The apology broadcast by Goswami's TV channel, according to Ofcom, read, "The communications regulator, the Office of Communications, post-viewing the September 6, 2019 episode of Poochta Hai Bharat, found that some offensive words were used in a program which may have disturbed the viewers. Republic Media Network apologizes if those words hurt any religion or particular person."
The Office of Communication said that the content aired by the Hindi news channel "amounted to hate speech against Pakistani people and derogatory and abusive treatment of Pakistani people".
The release mentioned that the guests and Goswami said: "Their scientists, doctors, their leaders, politicians all are terrorists. Even their sports people. Every child is a terrorist over there. Every child is a terrorist. You are dealing with a terrorist entity".
The UK regulator also highlighted remarks made by "General Sinha", one of the guests in the panel, who referred to people of Pakistan as "beggars" and warned of an attack on the nation.
It also added that the use of the term "Paki", which it said was racist and unacceptable to the UK audience.
Several netizens took to Twitter to share their reactions.
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