New Vision TV cleared of Ofcom complaint by Mr Yasir Masood

Pakistani news broadcaster, New Vision TV has been cleared of a complaint to Ofcom made by Mr Yasir Masood.

The complaint was made after a news programme aired on 3rd September 2019 at 17:00. The programme featured a report on a protest which took place in front of the Indian High Commission in London and the damage which it said had been caused to the building by some of the people who attended the protest.

The report included footage of Mr Masood in a group of people, videoing on his mobile phone another man who was gesticulating at Mr Masood. Mr Masood complained that he was treated unjustly or unfairly in the programme as broadcast.

New Vision TV said that the representations made by Mr Masood were “his personal viewpoint of how the events unfolded during that day [of the demonstration]”. New Vision TV also said that the links (to social media) provided by Mr Masood in his representations on the Preliminary View were not related to the broadcast programme. It also said that the social media evidence referred to by the complainant was “nothing to do with New Vision TV” and that, as such, it did not feel compelled to comment on it.

Ofcom considered that material facts were not presented, disregarded or omitted in a way that was unfair to Mr Masood in relation to this head of complaint. The complaint was not upheld.