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[vimeo https:\/\/vimeo.com\/1094333754]<\/p>\n
The Disputed Sanjauli Mosque<\/h4>\n
For context, the mosque regarding which the women were interviewed is disputed for two reasons.<\/p>\n
One, the mosque committee has been accused of constructing additional floors that are not compliant with construction laws. Cases related to this ‘illegal construction’ have been pending in the Shimla municipal court since 2010<\/a>.<\/p>\n Two, the mosque was allegedly the place where members of a minority community sought ‘refuge’ after a brawl in which a Hindu shopkeeper was assaulted. While the altercation was a local incident in the Malyana area of Shimla<\/a> on August 31, 2024, it soon snowballed into a major communal issue. The incident sparked protests against unauthorised mosques in Shimla and other regions of Himachal Pradesh. On September 11, 2024<\/a>, Hindu outfits staged a major demonstration demanding the mosque’s demolition. The protest turned violent and eventually resulted in demonstrators clashing with the police. Both sides sustained injuries.<\/p>\n On October 5, 2024<\/a>, the Shimla municipal commissioner ordered the removal of three unauthorised floors of the five-storied place of worship. Seven months later, on May 3, 2025<\/a>, the same municipal commissioner ruled that the first two floors of the mosque were also ‘illegal’ and ordered for the whole structure to be demolished.<\/p>\n In the TNN video report, the women tell the channel’s correspondent that they felt threatened by the growth in the number of Muslim residents in the locality. However, their responses were fairly different from what was shown in the thumbnail.<\/p>\n In his complaint, Indrajeet Ghorpade highlighted this along with the “prejudiced” line of questioning by the TNN reporter. Before we get into the issues raised by him, let’s look at the statements by the women interviewees whose images are used in the thumbnail.<\/p>\n When asked to talk about her concerns, the woman on the right in the image above, who runs a shop next to the mosque, says she had no issues with older residents but fears the newer ones. \u201cYou know, we hear that they, people from one community commit rapes. That\u2019s when we feel scared, thinking, what if something like that happens to our children?\u201d she said. \u201cThese people need to be verified. Those who pass the verification can stay; others should leave. When we go out at night and see these people also out, we feel scared. We don\u2019t know where they\u2019re from or what they\u2019re doing\u2014there\u2019s no verification.\u201d She also claimed that the locality had become crowded and many Muslim residents were now bringing their families.<\/p>\n It is pertinent to note here that the interviewee did not say she was harassed by Muslim residents of Sanjauli. She said she feared something like that could happen. However, her image was used in the thumbnail with a speech bubble that said “Musalmaan ladke humein…”\u00a0<\/em>(Muslim boys do…), making it seem as though some wrongdoing already took place.<\/p>\n The second interviewee, the woman seen on the left in the thumbnail, said that her problem was that movement across the city was becoming a problem with the rising number of residents in the area. “When they offer namaz, there\u2019s a lot of noise and commotion,” she said. After being asked about women\u2019s safety twice by the TNN journalist, the interviewee responded that when there’s a large crowd or movement, “everyone gets scared, thinking someone might say something to us”.<\/p>\n This woman’s image was used in the thumbnail with a speech bubble that said, “Jumme ke din toh<\/em>…” (On Friday prayers, it’s so…). This quote, too, is misattributed. During her one-minute interview with TNN, the woman does not mention Jumma or Friday prayers.<\/p>\n Also, the legality of the mosque was still subjudice when the video was uploaded, but the TNN journalist used the phrase ‘Avaidh Masjid’ or ‘illegal mosque’ while asking questions. The title of the video report and the thumbnail, too, had the same phrase in single quotes.<\/p>\n He questioned what the channel was trying to imply by using text such as “Avaidh Masjid ko lekar Shimla ke Hinduon ne Musalmano par kya kaha” (Regarding the ‘illegal mosque, what Shimla’s Hindus had to say about Muslims) <\/em>in the thumbnail. <\/em><\/p>\n He also said that the channel seemed to “insinuate” something to the viewers with the incorrect and misleading text in the speech bubbles. He emphatically said that the text in the speech bubbles mentioned issues “none of the women interviewed by the reporter had flagged”.<\/p>\n He also added that the interviewees’ responses “seemed to stem from deep-rooted Islamophobia” and the channel was not helping by using phrases such as \u201cKya dar ka mahaul hai?<\/em>”\u00a0(Is fear clouding the atmosphere?) in their reportage.<\/p>\n “While women’s safety is undoubtedly a matter of grave concern and not an issue that must be downplayed, asked in the report, in the report by Times Now Navbharat, the reporter, in an attempt to highlight local concerns, asks leading and prejudiced questions to portray that the Muslim the presence must be feared and that women’s safety, particularly, is at a risk due to and rise of Muslim people in a particular area,” his complaint said.<\/p>\n “Writing the word illegal in single or double quotation marks does not change the impact that such inaccurate and malicious reporting has on viewers. A regular viewer does not fully understand the meaning of writing words in single or double quotation marks,” he said on the words ‘illegal mosque’ being used widely by the channel.<\/p>\n While responding to the complaint, TNN said that the thumbnail should be “read in its entirety to understand the context. Further, no motive could be attributed to it. In the thumbnail, the full statement cannot be carried.”<\/p>\n The channel also contended that Ghorpade’s arguments “had no merit” and alleged that it stemmed from viewing “the programming in a piecemeal manner instead of looking at it as a whole.” It also argued that the press had the right to provide “fair commentary on matters affecting the public at large” and the editorial discretion regarding the mode and manner of presentation.<\/p>\n TNN emphasised that its video report did not target a community. The women were interviewed independently and while they raised concerns about unknown newcomers and suggested verification of men entering Shimla, no specific community was named, it said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the NBDSA, in its order, only tackled the issue of the thumbnail without getting into the demerits of the content and manner of the broadcast. The body said that the thumbnail texts were “inconsistent with the statements made by the women interviewed during the broadcast” and gave the impression that the women were harassed by Muslims, which was not stated by the women interviewed. “Thus, this was not only misleading but also not in the interest of communal harmony,” it said.<\/p>\n Consequently, the body ordered TNN to edit or remove the thumbnail from the video on its site and YouTube within seven days. NBDSA also issued an advisory to all broadcasters, highlighting that the tickers and thumbnails should conform to the actual version of the discussions\/interviews.<\/p>\n Last year, the NBDSA slapped a Rs 1 lakh fine on Times Now Navbharat for its malicious reportage on the murder of Shraddha Walkar in November 2022. Walkar was killed by her Muslim boyfriend, Aftaab Poonawalla, and her dismembered body was found in the fridge. Following this, several news channels, including TNN, went on a rampage. In its reportage, TNN turned the incident into a larger communal issue, portraying all Muslims as barbaric and guilty of organised crimes against Hindu women.<\/p>\n NBDSA fined Times Now Navbharat Rs 1 lakh, News 18 India Rs 50,000 in cases I filed against painting the entire Muslim community as barbaric & guilty of conducting organised crimes against Hindu women, by malicious linking Shraddha Walker’s murder to the ‘love jihad’ conspiracy. pic.twitter.com\/RO5jJR0iLN<\/a><\/p>\n‘Insinuating’ Thumbnail<\/h4>\n
<\/p>\nIssues Raised with NBDSA<\/h4>\n
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TNN’s Response and NBDSA’s Order<\/h4>\n
Not A First<\/h4>\n
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