Indian government blocks Al-Jazeera over Kashmir maps in latest bout of censorship
Recent bans have sparked accusations of a growing climate of intolerance under Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
India’s government took Al-Jazeera news channel off the air on Wednesday for five days after officials insisted it had repeatedly shown wrong maps of disputed Kashmir.
Al-Jazeera in India showed a blue screen on Wednesday with a sign saying ”as instructed by the ministry of information and broadcasting, this channel will not be available”.
An official said the order was made earlier this month over the maps that showed parts of the Himalayan Kashmir region in arch rival Pakistan and China, an extremely sensitive issue in India.
“The ban has been imposed for five days and it was done on instructions of an inter-ministerial committee, who took cognisance of an incorrect map of India in which the channel showed parts of Kashmir in Pakistan and China,” the official said.
The order comes amid a simmering censorship row in India over a series of recent bans that have sparked accusations of a growing climate of intolerance under Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
They include a ban on screening a BBC documentary on the fatal gang-rape of a student that sparked mass protests in Delhi.