Gimmicks of a T.V. Channel

Last December a TV Channel India TV telecasted an interview of an American scholar Ms Farhana Ali. The Interview was about “Mumbai terror attacks and it’s aftermath”. She hails from Pakistan and lives in America, and is an analyst of political affairs and problems. In the interview, which she has given in ‘Hindi’ , she seemed to be supporting government of India’s stand over the crisis. Channel presented her as an American spy. Viewers might have watched the interview with much interest and also appreciated the outreach of the TV channel. Later on , it was told that Ms Farhan Ali did neither give any interview to any news channel nor spoke to any reporter. Channel misused the interview she gave to Reuters. (Mail Today , April 10).

She lodged a complaint with News Broadcasting Standards Disputes Redressal Authority (NBSDRA) , which TV channel owners have formed to control the transparency and accuracy of the reporting and to make member channels comply with certain regulations.

This Interview was all bogus
Association’s (NBSDRA) chief , Justice J.S.Verma, assessed her complaint and channel’s explanation, and came to conclusion that the interview was bogus and fabricated. India TV obtained her picture from internet and by adding sound as some Hindi sentences, showed as she spoke to the channel. Where as she doesn’t speak Hindi at all. Justice Verma had penalized the channel with Rs 1 Lakh and instructed channel to broadcast apology atleast 5 times. It is a good sign for those fair-minded viewers, who want to watch just facts. Also the fact, that TV channels had established a regulatory body for monitoring themselves, is surprising. Basically this should have been done by some Government body, but they do not feel it their responsibility it seems. And the question is important too, as why such a big-money making TV channels needed such a regulatory body for themselves ?

Justice Verma should also look after this
Justice Verma should certainly be appreciated that he caught such a big mistake of a TV channel. But who knows if Justice Verma is aware that, this is every day business of TV channels. They practice these gimmicks to increase their T.R.P. Justice Verma, with the help of his experts, could also watch the reports about Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Taliban and SIMI as by broadcasting photos and footage how these channels mix voices. How, they interpret the words by referring them as ‘code words’. Translating the codes as ‘book’ for bomb, ‘Library’ for place under attack, and “Hakeem” referring to person attacking. Since, unlike Farhana Ali, these groups (most of them are fabricated) do not challenge their reports, TV channels business continues. Justice Verma would also know as where Indian TV channels learn this all from? Of course, American TV channels, who every now and then broadcast fabricated voice tapes of Bin Laden and Zwahery, to make fool of people. Also Justice Verma would know, why these channels needed such a monitoring body.? They needed it, because some times the new channels go far ahead in these gimmicks, leaving established TV channels behind.

19/04/09 khabar-o-nazar by Parvaz Rahmani, sehrozaDAWAT, translated by: Ibrahim Shaikh