INS_Vikrant
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LONDON: Khalsa Television Limited has chosen to surrender its broadcast licence after the UK regulator Ofcom sent it a draft notice to revoke its licence after its TV channel KTV, which served the British Sikh community, broadcast a Punjabi programme inciting Sikhs abroad to travel to Punjab to take violent action in support of Khalistan
KTV has been off air since March 31 when Ofcom suspended Khalsa Television’s licence. On May 13 Ofcom issued Khalsa Television with a draft notice to revoke its licence. On May 26 it surrendered its licence.
Ofcom’s investigation found that Jagjit Singh Jeeta, the presenter of the live discussion programme “Prime Time”, broadcast from KTV’s UK studios, made several statements which, taken together, called on Sikhs in the diaspora to emulate Sikh militants of the past and travel to Punjab to engage in acts of crime and violence, up to and including murder, to further the Khalistan cause and that this was in serious breach of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code on incitement to crime or disorder.
The presenter had challenged viewers to stop advocating for an independent Khalistan on social media and invited them to travel with him to Punjab.
“The presenter repeatedly praised people who perpetrated terrorist incidents and violent crimes carried out in the name of the Khalistan secessionist movement or Sikhism and referenced them directly alongside his calls to travel to Punjab. The presenter specifically suggested that the objective of achieving an independent state of Khalistan should be pursued ‘at any cost’, including ‘through the power of the gun’,” Ofcom said in its decision.
The licensee accepted it had breached the code but said that the presenter’s call to go to the Punjab “was a call to engage in peaceful protest” and revering militant leaders from the past was “analogous to invoking the spirit of heroes like Admiral Nelson… It is a call to take inspiration, not necessarily to engage in crime”.
The Sikh Press Association made representations to Ofcom accusing the regulator of religious discrimination for not understanding “shaheedi (martyrdom)” and asked whether Ofcom had been influenced by “Indian nationalist rhetoric, which aims to portray peaceful Sikh activism as violent”.
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KTV has been off air since March 31 when Ofcom suspended Khalsa Television’s licence. On May 13 Ofcom issued Khalsa Television with a draft notice to revoke its licence. On May 26 it surrendered its licence.
Ofcom’s investigation found that Jagjit Singh Jeeta, the presenter of the live discussion programme “Prime Time”, broadcast from KTV’s UK studios, made several statements which, taken together, called on Sikhs in the diaspora to emulate Sikh militants of the past and travel to Punjab to engage in acts of crime and violence, up to and including murder, to further the Khalistan cause and that this was in serious breach of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code on incitement to crime or disorder.
The presenter had challenged viewers to stop advocating for an independent Khalistan on social media and invited them to travel with him to Punjab.
“The presenter repeatedly praised people who perpetrated terrorist incidents and violent crimes carried out in the name of the Khalistan secessionist movement or Sikhism and referenced them directly alongside his calls to travel to Punjab. The presenter specifically suggested that the objective of achieving an independent state of Khalistan should be pursued ‘at any cost’, including ‘through the power of the gun’,” Ofcom said in its decision.
The licensee accepted it had breached the code but said that the presenter’s call to go to the Punjab “was a call to engage in peaceful protest” and revering militant leaders from the past was “analogous to invoking the spirit of heroes like Admiral Nelson… It is a call to take inspiration, not necessarily to engage in crime”.
The Sikh Press Association made representations to Ofcom accusing the regulator of religious discrimination for not understanding “shaheedi (martyrdom)” and asked whether Ofcom had been influenced by “Indian nationalist rhetoric, which aims to portray peaceful Sikh activism as violent”.
Khalsa Television Ltd surrenders its licence in UK - Times of India
UK News: LONDON: Khalsa Television Limited has chosen to surrender its broadcast licence after the UK regulator Ofcom sent it a draft notice to revoke its lice.
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