Ofcom raps Times Now for impartiality breach

Times Now has been rapped for the first time by UK media regulator, Ofcom for covering a news piece on the Uri attacks, which was found in breach of impartiality rules.

In a news bulletin aired in September last year, a complaint alerted Ofcom to the commentary of a news item which the complainant considered was “hate speech against Pakistan”. Times Now broadcast rolling news content of approximately 60 minutes duration that focused on a forthcoming speech that was due to be made by Sushma Swarajh, the Indian External Affairs Minister, at the United Nations General Assembly (“UNGA”) on 26 September 2016. This speech was to be made in response to the speech made by Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan at the UNGA, on 21st September 2016. These speeches were made against the background of the “Uri attack” which had happened on 18th September 2016 and had seen increased tension between India and Pakistan, as many Indian commentators had blamed Pakistan for the attacks. The news content also focused on a meeting between Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, and senior cabinet officials and officials from the Indian Water Resource Ministry. The news content discussed whether India could use the revision of the Indus Waters Treaty in its diplomatic reaction with Pakistan following the Uri attack.

In response to this, Times Global said that it included in the news content, the views and opinions of exdiplomats “to bring out the strategy that India would adopt to address the situation before the UNGA”, because such contributors would have “perhaps the best strategic view to such a scenario”. It added that the “opinions and statements expressed by experts [within the news content] were their independent views and the inclusion of their opinion was vital to the news coverage”. It added that the programme also referred to the Indus Waters treaty
because “it was important to raise questions on whether as part of the strategy to deal with Pakistan, India would reconsider the Treaty on sharing the Indus river waters”. It added that “to give a neutral view to this discussion, the ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ of revisiting the Indus River[s] Treaty were put forth as part of the discussions”. In conclusion, the Licensee said that the news programme was part of its “continuous coverage” of the UNGA speech to be made by Sushma Swarajh on 26 September 2016 and Nawaz Sharif’s speech to the UNGA on 21 September 2016. In this context, Times Global said that Nawaz Sharif’s speech to the UNGA on 21 September 2016 “was also carried on the channel” thereby “putting across the position of Pakistan on the key issues placed before the UNGA”.

Ofcom said it could not identify any viewpoints being reflected in this news content which could be described as reflecting the viewpoint of the Pakistani Government on the matters being discussed in the content, or otherwise countering or challenging the various critical statements being made about the Pakistani Government, for example in relation to its policy towards terrorism. By failing to provide such viewpoints, the criticisms of the Pakistani Government’s actions and policies in relation to various policies, such as tackling cross-border terrorism, remained unchallenged and therefore Times Now failed to ensure this news content was presented with due impartiality.

Ofcom was therefore that Times Now did not present the news item with due impartiality and Rule 5.1 of the Code was breached.