Some channels such as News18, India Today, Aaj Tak and other news outlets reported that the woman was murdered by Ashraf. But it turned out that the accused was Rajan Mukti Ray
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – Activists and journalists have sought action against news channels and media outlets for misreporting that a woman was brutally murdered and dismembered in Karnataka’s capital city of Bengaluru by a Muslim man named Ashraf.
Recently, a 29-year-old woman named Mahalakshami was cut into 59 pieces and the body parts were stuffed into a refrigerator. Some channels such as News18, India Today, Aaj Tak and other news outlets reported that the woman was murdered by Ashraf. But it turned out that the accused was Rajan Mukti Ray. He confessed to the heinous crime with his mother and committed suicide.
However, media reports spread misinformation related to the incident to whip up communal feelings against Muslims. News anchor Aman Chopra, who was found guilty and punished for violating the program code, compared the killing of Mahalakshmi with the murder of Shraddha Walker in which the accused was a Muslim man named Aftab. During his show, Chopra repeatedly mentioned the case of Shraddha Walker to highlight the identity of the accused as a Muslim.
The news anchor blatantly asked how many more Aftabs would be there while pointing to the brutality of the incident.
India Today and Aaj Tak also highlighted the Muslim name as the accused suggesting the motive of reporting the incident.
Now, the accused has turned out to be Ray, but these channels have yet to issue any clarifications about their misreporting. However, people on social media sought action against them.
Noted anchor Rajdeep Sardesai described this communal coverage as “utterly shameful.”
Prominent journalist MK Venu said: “A formal complaint to the TV news regulatory body must be made. This anchor has been reprimanded and the channel penalised for such content in the past. If he persists then clearly Ambanis are complicit”.
Jeet, an activist who has filed several complaints against the news channels for their communal coverage of the issue, said that he has filed a complaint in this case also and will try that Chopra gets severe penalty as he is a repeat offender.
Congress spokesperson Lavalya Ballal Jain described the communal coverage of News18 as “vile” and “disgusting”.
“Just in the past three days 3 national channels have run fake news as prime-time news from Karnataka. Anything that comes from the WhatsApp forwards of the BJP is taken as sacrosanct by these channels,” she said.
Addressing the Managing Director of News 18, Chief Executive Officer, Editor-in-Chief of News18 group Rahul Joshi, chairman of the board Adil Zain and Mukesh Ambani, owner of the group, journalist Rahul Dev said: “Are you gentlemen going to take strict & public action on this notorious anchor @AmanChopra_ of your group? He has only brought all of you ignominy, shame & disrespect for his blatantly communal anchoring time and again. He has been fined, admonished & punished by professional bodies more than once. You also need to answer why do you continue to employ him & allow him to destabilise the country for so long. Is it under any pressure/compulsion? If not, the only explanation left is that you yourselves share his venomous bigotry designed to communalise, divide & incite violence in society.”
He further said “If you have any personal & professional morality, conscience & ethics within you, you need to answer these questions & explain yourselves. You are ultimately & legally responsible for the content & policies of your journalistic properties”.
