SAPNA SAMANT AGAINST RADIO NEW ZEALAND
Case Number: 3562
Council Meeting: 21 October 2024
Decision: No Grounds to Proceed
Publication: Radio NZ
Principle:
Accuracy, Fairness and Balance
Comment and Fact
Discrimination and Diversity
Ruling Categories: Politics
- Radio New Zealand published an article on 18 August 2024, headlined Hindu organisations rally in Auckland highlighting violence against minorities in Bangladesh.
- This reported a rally organised by Hindu groups to highlight violence against Hindus and other minorities in Muslim dominated Bangladesh.
- Sapna Samant said the story was unbalanced because it failed to mention the atrocities against the Muslim minority in Hindu dominated India. She complained it perpetuates the Islamophobia sentiment of the Hindu supremacists at the protest and discriminated against Muslims and Bangladesh.
- She complained the article breached Media Council Principles (1) Accuracy, Fairness and Balance as it did not refute or confirm the protestors claims relating to Hindus and other minorities. A link to a Reuters article reported the death of Bangladeshi protestors but did not report the ongoing atrocities committed on Hindus and other minorities as claimed by the protestors.
- It did not balance the story by asking the protestors about ongoing atrocities against Muslims and other minorities in India by the Hindu organisation that arranged the protest. Nor did it mention the protesters used Hindu nationalist symbols and slogans or mention that the Indian Government had passed a law making Indian Muslims stateless and giving citizenship to Hinda from other countries.
- She said the article breached Principle (4) Comment and Fact; and (7) Discrimination and Diversity as it perpetuated the Islamophobia of well-known Hindu supremacists at the protest.
- Radio New Zealand said it could not uphold the complaint. It said the story was reporting an Auckland protest in support of minorities in Bangladesh. It was a long held journalistic convention that not every aspect of a controversial topic needed to be covered in every story on a particular topic.
- The treatment of Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh and the associated recent developments in that country could be readily distinguished as a separate topic from the treatment of Muslims in India.
- Coverage of both topics in the one article was not required by Media Council principles.
- The Media Council agrees with points made in Radio New Zealand’s response. This was a brief story about a local protest about what is reportedly happening in Bangladesh, and it was not realistic to expect it to cover off the much wider context of religious and political conflict across the Indian sub-continent.
- All the allegations of mistreatment were attributed to people at the protest. It also reported a balancing counter view quoting the Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus saying, “the reports on attacks on minorities have been exaggerated and invited Indian journalists to visit Bangladesh and report from the ground on the issues of minority protection.”
- This was a report of a local protest about a discrete issue, quoting those involved, and briefly presenting the different view.
- There were no grounds to proceed.