BBC served legal notice on rape documentary

YouTube's spokesperson says they have received the government notification too

The Indian government today served a legal notice on BBC for broadcasting the controversial documentary on the 2012 gangrape incident. The government also served a court order on all social media websites for hosting the content, with YouTube already complying with the court directive.

"The order was of the morning and has been served. We have also told to social media websites to remove the content failing which we will take appropriate action under the current IT Rules," a top government source overseeing the exercise told Business Standard.

Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the government was also exploring the possibility of approaching telecom service operators to ensure compliance on all platforms, including mobile phones. The Department of IT has blocked the content on internet. YouTube, which has complied with the court order, has put up declaration that the content has been removed after a specific court order.

Prasad said that his government respected freedom of press. "The Narendra Modi government has taken many new initiatives for public engagement through social media, like the Mygov.in. But in this case there was a specific court order. Obviously, there is a great revulsion in the country as to why a hardened criminal duly convicted through process of law for heinous rape and awarded with capital punishment should be given an international platform of a respected channel," he said.

Meanwhile, the father of the gangrape victim went back on his support for telecasting of the documentary and said the family will sue BBC and the filmmaker for making public the name and photograph of his daughter.

The PTI quoted the father of the victim that the family had clearly told the filmmakers not to use his 23-year-old daughter's name and photograph. "BBC has thrown a challenge to the Indian government and we are confident that they will be given a suitable reply soon," he said. The father also lauded the Home Minister for the alacrity with which he has responded to the issue. Until Wednesday, the family had supported the telecast of the documentary.

As for YouTube, its spokesperson confirmed they have received the government notification. "While we believe that access to information is the foundation of a free society, and that services like YouTube help people express themselves and share different points of view, we continue to remove content that is illegal or violates our community guidelines, once notified," said the statement issued by YouTube.

According to the policy of Google, the law requires the company to be notified of the content that is illegal. And the law enforcement agencies are required to notify the intermediaries with specific URLs to be taken down, clarified sources.

The contentious documentary filmed by Leslee Udwin and BBC includes an interview of Mukesh Singh, the driver of the bus in which the 23-year- old paramedical student was brutally gangraped by six men on December 16, 2012. Mukesh has made derogatory statements against women in the documentary.