In its complaint to the information and technology minister, LRO said, “Since the issue of Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 started creating waves in North East India, many media houses based in Assam started exploiting situation for their own benefit. Defunct militant group ULFA has launched fresh recruitment drive in Assam by using media created unrest.”
New Delhi: Four Assamese media outlets have landed in trouble for allegedly propagating terror ideologies through their platforms as the Union information and technology ministry ordered a probe over charges of provoking the youth to join militancy.
The action came in the wake of a complaint by the RSS-backed rights body Legal Rights Observatory (LRO).
In its complaint to information and technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, LRO said, “Since the issue of Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 started creating waves in North East India, many media houses based in Assam started exploiting situation for their own benefit. Defunct militant group ULFA has launched fresh recruitment drive in Assam by using media created unrest.”
LRO alleged — TV channel Pratidin Time, Asomiya Pratidin newspaper, Prag news and InsideNE news website — these electronic, digital and print media outlets are “directly broadcasting videos and propaganda material of newly inducted militants in battle fatigue to propagate militant ideology and to give fresh boost to ULFA and other militant groups.”
The rights body sounded caution, saying, “If government continues to ignore their blatant, violent propaganda, it will continue to create new militants with fresh blood in Assam and situation will worsen during Lok Sabha elections.”
“On numerous occasions in the recent past, all media outlets mentioned here have openly professed the need to take up arms to fight against the Central government and broadcasting propaganda videos of ULFA cadres along with telephonic interviews of absconding ULFA chief,” the LRO said in the complaint.
Read Exclusive COVID-19 Coronavirus News updates, at MyNation.