Prasar Bharati’s chief executive officer Shashi Shekhar Vempati. Prasar Bharati’s chief executive officer Shashi Shekhar Vempati.

Citing BBC’s “singularly one-sided version of incidents” while covering the violence in Delhi, Prasar Bharati’s chief executive officer Shashi Shekhar Vempati declined an invitation from the British broadcaster to attend an awards function for Indian sportswomen, organised to mark International Women’s Day.

In a letter to BBC’s director-general Tony Hall, Vempati said that he “strongly believed” that public broadcasters such as the BBC and Prasar Bharati “must respect the sovereignty of the nations we primarily serve even as we collaborate beyond borders on multilateral fora for the greater global good”.

“As a fellow public broadcaster of global repute, it is dismaying that the BBC has filed such a singularly one-sided version of the incidents of violence in Delhi which rather than help break the cycle of violence has only contributed to further vitiating the atmosphere while insinuating the brave men and women in uniform who are charged with the onerous responsibility of maintaining law and order,” Vempati wrote in a letter dated March 4.

Referring to a video news report by the BBC on March 3, Vempati wrote, “In the said report certain visuals have been shown of the Delhi Police without context to insinuate communal behavior. Unfortunately nowhere in the entire report have the BBC journalists mentioned the murderous assault on the men in uniform by a mob which resulted in the death of a Head Constable while in the line of duty and also resulted in the fatal injuries received by a Deputy Commissioner of Police in uniform.”

He wrote that the report was also “damningly silent” on the murder of an Intelligence Bureau official. Vempati had been invited to the BBC Indian Sportswomen of the Year Awards Night.

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