TV anchors have a ‘duty’ not to spread hate speech, says India’s top court

Mainstream television news channels are accused of providing platform to extremist views

Hate speech in India is tantamount to killing people in many different ways and it is the “duty” of the country’s television anchors to stop it in electronic media, observed the country’s Supreme Court on Thursday.

India has witnessed a significant and worrying surge of the phenomenon in recent years and a bench of the top court, comprising justices KM Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy, on Wednesday also called out the federal government for being a “mute witness”.

It heard a batch of 11 petitions that sought directions to regulate hate speech and asked if the law had provisions to do so.