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Sangat TV warned over live “derogatory” broadcast

Sangat TV has been found in breach of Ofcom rules for airing a live Gurdwara broadcast where “derogatory” comments were made about the preacher Darshan Das.

Darshan Das was a controversial religious figure within the Sikh Community, with many Sikhs considering that his religious teachings clashed with established Sikh religious doctrine.

Ofcom noted that this was a live broadcast, which featured a young adult male speaker, dressed in a Sikh turban, who delivered a speech in English about Darshan Das on the anniversary of his death.

The speaker on stage said the following about the murder of Darshan Das, including as follows:

“A little bit into [Darshan Das�۪s] programme [Manjit Singh] got up and unleashes some justice on [Darshan Das]. [Rajinder Singh] jumps on stage and unleashes some more.”

“What was amazing about what [Rajinder Singh and Manjit Singh] done, was that they done it living in the UK.”

Regis 1, the owners of Sangat TV said that: “As a precautionary measure live broadcasting of such programmes in future would be minimised.”

Ofcom concluded that the programme included potentially offensive content that was clearly not justified by the context. And have recorded a breach of Rule 2.3 on the broadcaster.