Press Council to issue notice to newspapers over Forbesganj reporting

By TCN News Desk,

New Delhi: The Press Council of India (PCI) is likely to issue a “show cause” notice to several news papers including Hindi and Urdu news papers for their partisan and biased news coverage of Forbesganj police firing in which four members of minority community including one pregnant woman and an infant were killed point blank by the state police on 3rd June 2011.


Support TwoCircles

Bihar Media Watch, an NGO is one among others who have complained to the PCI against what it sees as “blatant violation of journalistic ethic and moral code of conduct” by prominent Hindi dailies including Hindustan, Prabhat Khabar and others.



There are almost no coverage of the Forbesganj police firing in Urdu news papers

In its complaint the NGO has mentioned that no news paper published from Patna highlighted the human rights violations done by the state police. For instance none of them published the picture showing Sunil Yadav, a Home Guards Jawan, jumping on the face of one of the victim who later died; even though the news channels were running that footage.

In its complaint to the PCI, the NGO has also alleged that whatever little coverage that the dailies like Hindi Hindustan gave to the Forbesganj killings, gave the entire episode a communal color as if the paper was a “Hindu” daily.

Interestingly the PCI has also received complaints against Urdu dailies like Qaumi Tanzeem and Farooqi Tanzeem who allegedly completely ignored the news.

PCI is a statutory, quasi judicial body which acts as a watchdog of the press. It also adjudicates the complaints against and by the press for violation of ethics and for violation of the freedom of the press respectively.

Link:

Forbesganj police firing and apathy of Urdu dailies of Bihar

SUPPORT TWOCIRCLES HELP SUPPORT INDEPENDENT AND NON-PROFIT MEDIA. DONATE HERE