After it came to the fore that British media watchdog Ofcom had imposed a fine of Rs 20 lakh on Republic Bharat TV channel, run by Arnab Goswami, for hate speech against Pakistani people in a programme broadcast last year, as reported by National Herald earlier today, he is being compared with Hindutva icon Savarkar, who secured his release from jail by issuing multiple apologies to the British during India’s freedom struggle, for apologising 280 times to Ofcom.

According to a report in The Times of India, in the programme in question, Goswami and some of the guests conveyed the view that all Pakistani people are terrorists. Gaurav Arya, the channel’s consulting editor, said: “their scientists, doctors, their leaders, politicians all are terrorists. Even their sports people. This whole nation is terrorist. I do not think anyone has been saved. You are dealing with a terrorist entity.”

The regulator also mentioned comments made by one of the guests identified as “General Sinha”, who referred to people of Pakistan as “beggars” and threatened military attack Pakistan, reported Scroll.

Ofcom noted that the content of the programme was “potentially offensive and was not sufficiently justified by the context”. It added that the comments made were “expressions of hatred based on intolerance of Pakistani people based on their nationality alone” and promoted and justified intolerance towards Pakistani people among viewers.

The UK regulator also took note of the use of the term “Paki”, which it said was a racist word and unacceptable to the audience of UK.

While imposing the fine, Ofcom noted that the channel had issued an apology 280 times for breach of media guidelines. “The Licensee also informed Ofcom that it broadcast an apology to “redress the breaches” and “convey our regret to all our viewers”. It said that the apology was broadcast “a total of 280 times between 26 February 2020 and 9 April 2020, at all hours of the day.”

The apology broadcast by Goswami’s TV channel, according to Ofcom, read, “The communications regulator, the Office of Communications, post-viewing the September 6, 2019 episode of Poochta Hai Bharat, found that some offensive words were used in a program which may have disturbed the viewers. Republic Media Network apologizes if those words hurt any religion or particular person,” as per a report carried by janatakareporter.com.

This is how users on Twitter reacted to the revelation:

https://twitter.com/njalva/status/1341659939253542915

https://twitter.com/BanNighah/status/1341682620732600320

https://twitter.com/ghulamabbasshah/status/1341688631229091841

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https://twitter.com/Samar_Anarya/status/1341713584464642048

https://twitter.com/iAnnuSingh/status/1341723268936437760

https://twitter.com/Bhavdeepnama/status/1341682270118137857

https://twitter.com/alexleonardz/status/1341660474685853696