NEW DELHI, India(AA)

Despite guidelines from India’s top media watchdog, experts voiced deep concern about aggressive and biased reporting by some media that also allegedly conducts "media trials,” thus affecting outcomes.

The Press Council of India (PCI), a media watchdog formed by parliament, recently issued an advisory asking the media to observe journalistic conduct drafted by the council.

The advisory came as a result of a recent media trial regarding the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

“We have issued a set of guidelines to be followed by the Indian print media. If not followed, strict actions will be taken against violators. All have been reminded of the norms of the journalistic conduct,” PCI Chairman Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad told Anadolu Agency.

Rajput was found hanged June 14 in his Mumbai home. Police said it was suicide but his father lodged a complaint against his girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty, for helping him commit suicide.

While Chakraborty is under investigation for money laundering by the Central Investigation Bureau (CBI), she has been on media trial since Rajput’s death and has been named a primary suspect by news channels.

PCI said the media should not “conduct its own parallel trial or foretell the decision to avoid pressure during investigation and trial,” and should not narrate the story in a manner to induce the public to believe in the complicity of the person indicted.

It also advised the media to refrain from giving excessive publicity to the victim, witnesses, suspects and accused as it will amount to “invasion of their privacy rights.”

Gunjan Singh, a Supreme Court advocate and head of litigation at the Human Rights Law Network, said the media’s business is now TRP (television rating points) driven, and the hunt for higher points leads to the sensationalizing of news.

“There was a time when the media’s highlighting of issues did help, like in the case of Jessica Lal when the media persisted on how powerful people could get away. But lately, it is all about prime-time runs, numbers and ratings,” he said to Anadolu Agency.

Voices against media trials

Eight former police officers recently moved a petition in a Mumbai court against the unfair, malicious and false media campaign against police in the Rajput-Chakraborty case.

Former Director-General of Police and ex-Chief of Anti-Terrorism Squad, Krishikant Raghuvanshi, who is also one of the petitioners against the media, said media trials malign the reputation of Mumbai police.

“We, only, demand that let the investigation be over and then come to conclusions. This entire propaganda will erode the common public’s trust in the city police and thus media trial and its parallel investigation should stop immediately,” he told Anadolu Agency.

Officers have sought to direct news media organizations to refrain from publishing or circulating false, derogatory, and scandalous comments which may jeopardize the reputation of city police.

Following the petition, the High Court asked the media to exercise restraint in reporting on the investigation into Rajput’s death. Some were running hashtags #ArrestRheaNow.

Chakraborty has also filed a case in the Supreme Court against the “media trial” which pronounced her guilty.

In April, the media ran a series on “how the Tablighi Jamaat members spread COVID-19 in India as an act of Corona terrorism” after 9,352 members of the Muslim religious group tested positive.

The “media trial” led Jamaat Ulema-e-Hind, a leading organization of Islamic scholars, to file a petition against violence caused by the “communal headlines” and “bigoted statements” about Tablighi Jamaat and Muslims.

Petitioners also reported terms like “CoronaJihad” and “Corona Terrorism” used against the group.

The Supreme Court, however, refused to pass interim orders regarding the petition.


Legally speaking

In its advisory, PCI said “it is not advisable to vigorously report crime-related issues on a day-to-day basis and comment on the evidence without ascertaining the factual matrix such reportage brings undue pressure in the course of fair investigation and trial.”

According to criminal jurisprudence, a suspect is entitled to a fair trial and is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.

“Using its inherent power, the Supreme Court transferred Rajput’s case to CBI, but the power should not have been used so loosely. This is a case of suicide/homicide like thousands other, but it was a media trial that pushed the apex court to use its power,” said Singh.

The Supreme Court had warned the media against reckless reporting affecting the dead’s honor in August 2010 during a double-murder case when a girl, 13, and her 45-year-old domestic help were killed. The media showcased their alleged relationship.

Singh also alleged that the media is running an unholy nexus with the ruling party and carrying out its agenda.

He said the blowing up of the Rajput case is a deliberate attempt as elections in the eastern state of Bihar, Rajput’s home, are nearing.

Authorities across China impose draconian control measures on Muslims from Xinjiang, prohibiting them from renting properties and running their businesses.

by Deng Jie

“Ever since the police prohibited all property owners from renting to Uyghurs from Xinjiang, they can’t find a place to live because no one is willing to deal with them,” a housing agency employee in Xiamen, a sub-provincial city in the southeastern province of Fujian, told Bitter Winter. “Landlords don’t want to get into trouble.”

“The police thoroughly investigate information on all tenants, and that is why nobody wants to rent their property to Uyghurs,” a property owner in Xiamen explained. The local police fined him 500 RMB (about $ 70) for renting to Uyghurs and demanded to send them ID information and photos of all Uyghur tenants. “The police have no right to do this,” the man added. “These Uyghurs came here to do business. They are not terrorists. This is racial discrimination.”

In March, many rental and real estate agencies in Xiamen received notices from the police, forbidding them to deal with Xinjiang Muslims.

Despite the strict control and discrimination, some Uyghurs still manage to find rental properties, but this doesn’t mean that their lives become easier. “We finally managed to rent an apartment, but on the condition that we report to a local police station three times a week,” an Uyghur living in Xiamen said. “Three days after we signed the rental contract, police officers installed a surveillance camera at our building entrance.”

He added that he also must notify the police if he leaves the area, and officers can call him at any time to learn about his whereabouts. When asked about the reasons for this “special treatment,” the man just shook his head, unwilling to talk more.

Uyghurs also face discrimination in banks. A man who does business in the southern province of Guangdong told Bitter Winter that to transfer money, he has to use his friend’s bank card because banks refused to issue him one.

The CCP’s propaganda has been defaming Xinjiang’s Uyghurs as radicals and extremists for years, creating hostility toward them among the general population, many of whom support the government’s drastic control measures.

“Authorities claim that Uyghurs from Xinjiang are terrorists and restrict them from moving into residential communities,” a grid administrator from Guangdong’s Shenzhen city explained. He added that owners prefer properties to stay empty than to rent to Uyghurs.

Not all, however, agree with the government. “They are really good and honest people that keep their word,” said a Han Chinese from Xiamen, who once rented property to an Uyghur.

Since May, police and anti-terrorism brigade officers started investigating diners and other food shops run by Xinjiang Uyghurs in Xiamen. Also, in the name of “social stability maintenance.”

Such investigations severely impact their businesses. “With so many officers coming to my shop, clients think that we have done something bad and don’t dare to come to eat again,” a waiter in a roast meat shop explained. Some shops and eateries have been forced to shut down because of police harassment.

“The government tries every means possible to deprive Uyghurs of their rights, prohibiting them from renting, doing business, and staying in hotels,” a Han businessman from Xiamen explained. “The goal is to drive them away and cut off all their sources of survival, forcing them back to Xinjiang to be locked in transformation through education camps.”

Washington D.C. [US], September 5 (ANI): Uyghur American and rights advocate Rushan Abbas demand OIC and other Muslim countries to watch what Pakistan and China doing to Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

In a video statement, she said, "The world continues to turn a blind eye to the genocide that the Chinese government is perpetrating against Uyghur Muslims.""Uyghur pleas are dismissed and discredited. Meanwhile, China's propaganda is met with blind faith. By virtue of this faith, over 3 million Uyghurs are imprisoned in concentration camps. Our religion is outlawed, our organs are harvested, our hair is sold, our children ripped from us, our women raped, forcibly married and sterilized," she said.

Rushan is the founder and executive director of the non-profit, Campaign for Uyghurs.

She said, "Uyghurs are forced to make your Nike shoes, Zara dresses, Calvin Klein purses as slaves while forsaking their religion and ethnicity.""A promise for 'never again' was made. But that promise is being broken.You hear the cries of agony from the millions facing genocide, from the children who scream out for their parents, the sobs of women who were raped, sterilized, and forced to abort. Still, the most deafening is the silence from the world community, in particular from our Muslim brothers and sisters. This pain is met with justifications made on behalf of the Chinese government," said the activist.

Rushan Abbas said, "The Gulf states remain indifferent to this genocide because of China's Belt and Road initiative accompanied by short term economic benefits. But in the end, China will be the only one who truly benefits. It will do onto all Islamic countries what it is doing to East Turkistan; enforce atheist communist ideology and kill off Islam".

The activist is unhappy with Pakistan's failure to raise the Uyghur issue with China, its close ally. She said, "Pakistan naively sees its ties to China as "mutually beneficial". This is folly; it is becoming China's colony. As the Chinese language becomes required and the Chinese military is seen on the streets of Pakistan, it is clear what is developing."The CCP is turning Islamic countries into their puppets, with their mouths, eyes, and ears covered by China's blood money.

The people of these nations are our Muslim brothers and sisters, and their silence stabs our hearts.

Rushan said: "Their fate may be the same as ours if they do not awaken soon! While the OIC has changed its position to support China's genocide, siding with these CCP bullies, we plead with the ummah to take up the cause of saving Uyghur lives, and concurrently protecting Islam from China's war on religion, as is our obligation as Muslims".

"This modern-day Genocide isn't just mass killings to the level of extermination; it means the obliteration of a people to extinction. It is our duty to make sure this genocide ends and it is Muslims' duty to defend Islam," she said while concluding: "Don't abandon your Muslim brothers and sisters."China has been accused of interning one million Uyghurs in "re-education" centers in Xinjiang.

Uyghurs do not accept that Xinjiang is part of China, citing the evidence that Uyghur people lived in the area before the Chinese Han and Tang dynasties set up protectorates.

Xinjiang, as it is now, came under the Chinese Qing dynasty rule in the 18th century, but there have been many times in its history when it was not under Chinese control. (ANI)

A doctor has made a series of startling claims about forced abortion and womb removal being carried out by Chinese authorities in its Uyghur prison camps.

The woman, a resident of Turkey and a Uyghur Muslim, spoke to ITV News under confidentiality, revealing the horror she witnessed inside the camps.

There have been ongoing claims against the Chinese government for its treatment of the Uyghur and ethnic Turkic minorities in the western Xinjiang region of the country.

Many have allegedly been forced into detention camps, which the Chinese government calls re-education camps.

The woman, a gynecologist, told the British news program that she worked for the Chinese government as part of population control.

“The clear intention was ethnic cleansing,” she told ITV News.

The woman, who has since fled China, claims she participated in between 500-600 operations on Uyghur women including forced womb removal, forced sterilisation and forced abortion.

In a harrowing interview, the doctor said on at least one occasion a baby was still moving when it was put into a garbage bin.

The allegations of forced birth control are backed by research conducted by the Associated Press into the murky world of China’s concentration camps.

Mirehmet Ablet, also a Uyghur Muslim, is among those who have left China due to the “crackdown” on its Muslim minority by the Chinese Communist in the past decade.

He told Yahoo News Australia in July that his brother went missing in 2017 and he believes he is still languishing in one of the camps.

After years of silence, Mr Ablet has decided to speak publicly about his brother’s case in a last-ditch effort to save his life.

“This is the last chance for us, this is the best way, to make it public, it’s our last chance to save him,” Mr Ablet told Yahoo News Australia. “Time to make it public otherwise I might lose my brother.

British human rights lawyer Geoffrey Nice, who previously led the prosecution of ex-Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic over the Balkans war and worked with the International Criminal Court, has been asked by the World Uyghur Congress to investigate “ongoing atrocities and possible genocide” against the Uyghur people.

Allegations against China about potential genocide are “questions that should be asked and answered” but such claims have never been legally scrutinised in public, Mr Nice told the Associated Press.

Organisers are in the initial stages of gathering evidence, and expect to receive a substantial number of submissions from Uyghurs exiled abroad over the next few months.

New evidence that may emerge includes testimony from several former security guards who were involved in the Xinjiang detention ca

“At the moment, the strongest evidence would appear to be evidence of incarceration and possibly evidence of enforced sterilisation,” Mr. Nice said.

He added that forced sterilization, as the woman claimed, could breach the Genocide Convention.

Chinese officials have repeatedly derided allegations of rights abuses in Xinjiang as fabricated, and insist that all ethnicities are treated equally.