Govt sends legal notice to BBC, bans film on social media

The Indian government slapped a legal notice on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Thursday for broadcasting the controversial documentary on the 2012 Delhi gang-rape incident. The government also served a court order on all social media websites against hosting the content, with YouTube already complying with the court directive.

“We have told 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 Electronics and Information Technology has blocked the content on the internet. YouTube, which has complied with the court order, has put up a declaration that the content has been removed after a specific court order.

Prasad said his government respected freedom of the press. “The Narendra Modi government has taken many new initiatives for public engagement through social media, like 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, saying the family would sue the BBC and the filmmaker for making public the name and photograph of his daughter.

Press Trust of India quoted the father 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.

“While we believe 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,” YouTube said in a statement. 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, sources said.

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