Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati has turned down an invitation from the BBC to attend an awards function for Indian sportswomen, citing the British broadcaster's “one-sided” reporting on the Delhi violence.
Vempati had been invited for the BBC's Indian Sportswoman of the Year awards ceremony due to be held in New Delhi on March 8.
“I must respectfully decline the invitation in view of the recent coverage of the BBC of certain incidents of violence in Delhi,” Vempati said in his letter to British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Director General Tony Hall.
“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,” he wrote in the letter dated March 4. In the said report certain visuals have been shown of the Delhi Police without context to insinuate communal behaviour, he added.
