By Aarju Alam for TwoCirlces.net
In an appalling breach of personal privacy and a case of glaring Islamophobia, News 18 India, a channel of Network 18 Media Group, used the video of a 17-year-old Indian boy Obaid Shamshad to portray the childhood of the founder Abu Bakar-al-Baghdadi in one of their programs.
‘News 18 India’ relayed this footage on channel and website in program named ‘Hadsha’. The video story was broadcast on March 31 on the channel and on April 1 with the name of “Special Report: How the Lecturer became a gangster of ISIS”.
The video shown in the News 18 India channels was taken from the documentary made by the Obaid for his school’s educational project which was uploaded on YouTube in May 2015. He was merely 15 years old in the shown video.
The anchor of this program, Digvijay Singh, claimed to have exposed every state of the life of Abu Bakar-al-Baghdadi in a very dramatic fashion. The duration of this program is about 17 minutes. At 12:39, the child’s video footage appear with following dialogue which runs in background.
“According to the people who knew Baghdadi, he was an ordinary Islamic scholar who happened to be a simple, peaceful person, entirely deserted from any kind of violence. According to the sources, till 2004, he used to live in a room of a small mosque in Topchi area of Baghdad, Iraq’s capital.”
Obaid Shamshad, who is studying at Class 10 in ‘International Indian School’ at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was attending his exams in his school when News 18 India program was broadcast.
Obaid says, “When I came out of the school after examination, I had many messages and calls from India about this program. My friends and relatives were upset and wanted to know about it. At first I thought people were making fool out of me, but when I saw the program, I was shocked and couldn’t believe it first. The very next day my schoolmates were teasing me as Baghdadi-Baghdadi.after this incident I couldn’t focus on my exams. I am unable to understand what is my fault. Why did this happen to me?”
Obaid’s father, Mohammad Shamshad had filed a written complaint on April 4 at Indian Embassy, Jeddah against News 18 India Channel for using his minor son’s video footage to portray terrorist Abu Bakar Al-Baghdadi childhood.
Mohammed Shamshad, who originally belongs from Uttar Pradesh, India, has been living in Saudi Arabia for almost 20 years now on. He is very upset and worry about his son image being distorted.
He says, “After all, what was the need of linking any child’s image to terrorist like Baghdadi? Due to this act of News 18 India, our family have been facing a very difficult time. Our friends and relatives are constantly calling me about this program, and I am getting sick and worried by giving them excuses.”
Mohammed Shamshad wants the channel apologise on the channel so tha the matter could be cleared and his son does not get into any trouble due to the program.
Despite several attempts to contact News 18 India in this matter, the channel did not get back to this reporter.
When Dawood Arif, a former alumni of the school and currently living in Delhi and saw this video on April 2, he wrote a complaint letter to News 18 India and urged to remove the video and asked for apology. The channel has not answered till now.
Dawood says, “The Indian media is passing through its worst time of the all time, the way News 18 India has linked an innocent minor child to terrorist like Baghdadi,The world seen the brainchild of Indian media. Being a student of Media, this is a matter of great shame for me ”
Thankfully, the Indian Consulate located in Jeddah has confirmed the registration of the complaint. “The consulate has taken this matter on a very serious note and will act according to law,” an officer from consulate said.
Moin Akhter an Officer of Indian Consulate Jeddah says that Consulate has already forwarded the complaints of the child to External Publicity and Public Diplomacy Division, Indian foreign ministry, who confirmed to receive such complaint.
Senior journalist and media analyst Mukesh Kumar is not surprised with this incident. He says that in times of paid news, media ethics are being suffocated. The way media has engaged in spreading sensation nowadays. “This incident is beyond the questions of media ethics, it is a matter of crime. Linking a minor school child to a terrorist who is accused of the murder of hundreds of people is a crime on which not only Departmental action should be taken, but the information and broadcasting ministry should act against this channel under the Cable Act. ”
However, while all concerned authorities took note of the seriousness of the incident, there has been no action taken against the channel, which shows how seriously media ethics is taken in the country.