Plea has sought directions to Centre to take strict action against fake news the section of the media spreading bigotry and communal hatred towards Muslims.
New Delhi| Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind has moved the Supreme Court to issue directions to the government to stop “fake” news being disseminated and demonisation of Muslims by some TV channels after the Nizamuddin Markaz incident related to Tablighi Jamaat.
In a PIL, the organisation of Muslim scholars questioned the use of terms like ‘Corona Jihad’ ‘Corona Terrorism’ ‘Corona Bombs’ and ‘Islamic Insurrection’ to demonise the entire Muslim community.
At least 9,000 people had participated in the religious gathering at Tablighi Jamaat’s headquarters in Nizamuddin West last month. The congregation became a key source for the spread of COVID-19 in India as many of the participants travelled to various parts of the country for missionary works.
Of the over 4,000 cases of coronavirus in the country, at least 1,445 have been found to be linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi, the Union health ministry said on Monday.
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The petition stated that this “demonisation” of the Muslims has led to serious “threat to life and liberty of Muslims”, and has thus led to the violation of their “right to life under Article 21” of the Constitution.
The petition has also sought a direction to all sections of the media to strictly comply with the Supreme Court directions asking them to maintain a strong sense of responsibility and ensure that unverified news is not disseminated.
It also contended that social media was also replete with similar misinformation and fake news aimed at giving the incident a communal tone and proliferating conspiracy theories about Tablighi Jamaat deliberately spreading Coronavirus across the country.
The petition filed by advocate Ejaz Maqbool asked the court to issue directions to the Centre to identify and take strict action against the section of media for communalising Nizamuddin Markaz issue.
(Input from Agencies)
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