Hyderabad:
Gen. Secretary of Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee
Lateef Mohammed Khan in an open letter sent to the Press Council
Chief, Justice (Rtrd.) Markandey Katju has urged him to take
action against the 'bias media' and stop the Media Trial' of the
Muslim community.
Outlining the way the media is
reporting the post-terror attack situation, he said there was a
clear bias and deliberate attempt by a section to malign the image
of the Muslim community. He also accused the media of spreading
hatred against the Muslim community.
"Telugu channels which telecast both
Telugu and Urdu news bulletin are completely different. In the
Telugu bulletins they spread hatred against Muslims where in Urdu
bulletin they are very cautious in reporting such hatred. So, the
Telugu and Urdu news bulletin are completely different from each
other", he said in his letter sent to Justice Katju, a copy of
which is available with ummid.com.
Expressing the concern over the
media coverage after the recent Dilsukhnagar serial blasts, he
wrote, "The media started investigation and jumped on the
conclusions and media room trial started. By giving their own
sources they named the organizations behind the blast and also the
names of Muslim youths. They even said that the planning of these
blasts took place in October itself."
"The media is diverting and linking
these blasts to the revenge of Afzal Guru and Ajmal Kasab. The
media also said that it is the revenge of Akbaruddin Owaisi’s
arrest", he said.
"Before the state investigating agencies and central investigating
agencies reached the spot, the media and Hindutva elements
gathered due to which the evidence at the bomb blast site were
lost. Though the police personnel reached there but did not try to
control the Hindutva elements and media mob. The Hindutva elements
raised anti-Muslim slogans", he alleged in his letter.
"The first thing which the media announced is that the actual
target of bomb blast was not the present place but it was the
Saibaba Mandir (how media got this report no one knows). Then the
media started explaining how the preparations of bomb blast took
place.
"They even said that two days before
the blasts the bomb planters were roaming in that area. Media even
declared the names of the persons involved in the blast. The
number of channels, that number of investigation and trial was
going on and all the channels had same conclusions.
"The target of all these channels
was Muslims", he wrote.
"The matter of concern is that the
media houses do not have any evidence or any information of this
incident but had only speculations. But with the type of their
reporting it seemed that they knew everything in advance", he
wrote.
"The media is even showing an
injured Muslim youth in the blast as main suspect and
unfortunately this person named Mirza Abdul Wasey became the
victim of bomb blast for the second time. He was injured even in
the Makkah Masjid blast as well.
"A person injured two times in the
blast i.e. in Makkah Masjid bomb blast and Dilsukhnagar bomb blast
became a crime, only because he is a Muslim", he alleged.
"The common people wondered that if the media houses knew all the
facts then why didn’t they inform the police? And if they did not
alert the police then it means that they have indirectly helped
the terrorists", he wrote.
"This committee wants to draw your
attention towards this type of reporting of media houses which is
propagating hatred among the people and isolating the Muslim
community", he wrote.
"The majority community is seeing
them with suspect in every walk of life. The attitude of media has
become the biggest threat to Muslim community and their life and
liberty is at stake", he wrote.
"We request you to issue the direction to the media houses to stop
their own investigation and media room trial against the Muslim
community which is aimed at targeting Muslim community", he wrote.
"We request you to collect all the reporting of the media both
electronic and print and investigate the news on this issue by
forming a team of experts. Take against those media houses that
have not spared a single minute to show and target Muslim
community as terrorists", he wrote in his letter.
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