NEW DELHI, 23 December, 2020, (TON): British telecom’s regulator Office of Communications (Ofcom) on Tuesday slapped a £20,000 fine on Worldview Media Network after its Indian channel Republic Bharat TV aired a programme which showed "hate speech" against Pakistanis.

Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom.

In a detailed note on its decision, Ofcom said that Republic Bharat’s– the evening primetime show hosted by Arnab Goswami, had failed to comply with its broadcasting rules.

According to Ofcom, an episode, shown on 6 September, 2019, featured “comments made by the host and some of his guests that amounted to hate speech against Pakistani people, and derogatory and abusive treatment of Pakistani people. The content was also potentially offensive and was not sufficiently justified by the context.”

"Due to the serious nature of these breaches we are considering imposing a statutory sanction," Ofcom had said in the decision.

Ofcom said that the show had violated sections 2.3, 3.2 and 3.3 of the Broadcasters' Code by airing material that included "hate speech, abusive and derogatory treatment of individuals, groups, religions or communities and offensive content".

Following the penalty, the network told the regulator it was stopping the airing of live debates on relations between Pakistan and India and would ensure that content was reviewed before being broadcast along with taking other steps.

Worldview Media Network Limited, the licensee which airs Republic Bharat in the UK, will also need to broadcast a statement of Ofcom’s findings and is barred from repeating the programme in the UK.

Prime time television in India has become a platform to peddle hatred against Pakistan. Hate-filled news programmes are not limited to a few channels or some anchors, hundreds of news channels follow the same format in India.