PCI Censure Star of Mysore - Press Release_English.pdf

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CAMPAIGN AGAINST HATE SPEECH
ದ್ವ ೇಷದ ಮಾತುಗಳ ವಿರುದಧ ಜನಾಂದೇಲನ
Press Release
27.12.2022
Press Council of India censures Star of Mysore for its hateful editorial published
in April 2020; calls it ‘unfair to target the Muslim community for the spread of
the pandemic’
The Press Council of India (PCI), in its order dated 16.12.2022, has censured the ‘Star of Mysore’, a
Mysore based news publication, for its April 2020 editorial in which it called the Muslim community
in India ‘bad apples’. Advocating for action against the Muslim community, the editorial had stated
‘the ideal solution to the problem created by bad apples is to get rid of them’.
A censure by the PCI means that the state government concerned must not advertise in the paper
for three consecutive months.
The PCI’s order comes on the basis of a complaint filed on 03.05.2020 by the Campaign Against
Hate Speech, a collective that works towards promoting media accountability to its publics. An
inquiry committee had been constituted by the PCI which recommended censure after hearing both
parties involved in the matter.
The committee refused to accept the contentions of the newspaper that the editorial had been
published in ‘good faith’ and had been published in the context of the coronavirus pandemic to
caution readers against those not following safety protocols.
In its report, the inquiry committee stated that ‘it is of the opinion that this editorial may have been
written in the context of Corona pandemic but the conclusion is inevitable that it is targeting one
community, i.e. the Muslims’ even though the community had not been explicitly named in the
editorial. It refused to accept the apology that had been tendered by the newspaper on April 10,
2020, soon after the publication of the editorial, stating that the ‘apology is not genuine’ and had
been tendered only because a mob had surrounded the offices of the newspaper. It called the
apology an ‘example of journalism of the worst kind’.
In its irresponsible editorial published on April 6, 2020, the then editor-in-chief KB Ganapathy had
written that the ‘the nation is currently hosting an annoying 18 percent of its population self-
identifying as rotten apples’ and ‘the unedifying conduct of some sections in the population, marked
by their faith and other features including their attire may bring to our mind the analogy of bad
apples in the basket’. Advocating for the elimination of a community, the editorial had further stated,
‘An ideal solution to the problem created by bad apples is to get rid of them, as the former leader of
Singapore did a few decades ago or as the leadership in Israel is currently doing’. In unequivocal
terms the Inquiry Committee found that after these statements, “Nothing more is needed to draw the
conclusion that a particular community is targeted”.

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The inquiry committee pointed to these excerpts in particular and stated that ‘it is unfair to blame
particular community for the spread of pandemic. There were several lapses during the relevant
period and we cannot identify people belonging to a certain community as being responsible for
those lapses.’
The inquiry committee also highlighted the responsibility of the press to ‘not indulge in such divisive
acts’, to ‘spread the message of brotherhood amongst people of all communities’, ‘strengthen India’s
unity in diversity’ and ‘desist from publishing inflammatory writings which fan the flames of
communalism’. It cited the following provisions under section 4 of Norms of Journalistic Conduct
2020:
which called on newspapers to ensure that its writings do not promote communal disharmony or
violate the spirit of the constitution.
The Campaign Against Hate Speech had filed a complaint with the Press Council of India in April
2020 in which we had stated that the editorial proved ‘that the news agency is promoting and
inciting hatred towards the community on the grounds of religion and is inciting hate against the
community and attacking them, thereby violating a basic principle of journalism of not to attribute
individual actions to a whole community to spread hatred and violence against it’.
CAHS welcomes this order with great relief and hopes that this would act as a restraint by other
newspapers from publishing similar divisive, hateful articles, especially editorials, which violate the
spirit of the constitution and break down fraternal bonds between communities.
The first wave of the pandemic led to especial targeting of Muslim communities across India. This
order of the PCI, even though coming after nearly two and a half years of filing of the complaint,
follows observations by various high courts of India that the Tablighi Jamaat had been unjustly
condemned as responsible for the spread of the pandemic. The vile and hateful reportage by news
media, particularly in Karnataka had vitiated the public sphere to such an extent that many Muslims
had faced abuse and even violence during the first wave of the pandemic.
For more information contact: Manavi Atri (8489272331); Shilpa Prasad (9970110070)