BBC apologises and withdraws article against Kanchi Shankaracharya

[Guest guest]

indicjournalists, "Ashok Chowgule"

<ashokvc wrote:

 

Here is an item that the secularists will make desperate attempt to

sweep under the carpet. The reasons are:

 

* It is an item that goes in favour the Kanchi Shankaracharya.

* It puts Shri Vinod Mehta in an atrocious light.

 

But then these are the standard operating procedure in the intellecutal

circles in India. The Press Council or the The Editor's Guild will not

take up an issue with Shri Vinod Mehta for telling such blatant lies.

And Shri Mehta will lose no sleep over such (figurative) slap on his

face - if he were sensitive, then he would find it very difficult to

sleep in general.

 

Incidentally, one wonders if the BBC would have paid Shri Mehta for the

lies that he has spoken and which were later transcribed. If so, then

surely at least part of the money that the BBC paid out should be

recovered from him.

 

Outlook magazine is an English language national weekly from India.

 

Namaste.

Ashok Chowgule

 

 

 

 

http://www.ptinews.com/pti/ptisite.nsf/$all/57ACA0CDF85A39286525712B004488C6?Ope\

ndocument

 

*Press Release*

*Source : N.Umasankar

* *Category :** **International* *

 

BBC apologises and withdraws article against Kanchi Shankaracharya*

 

*Chennai * *( Wednesday, March 8 , 2006 05:58:34 PM)*

In response to protests from a group of devotees of Sri Jayendra

Saraswathi,

the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram, the BBC has removed from its website

an

article by Mr. Vinod Mehta, the editor of Outlook magazine. Further, the

BBC

has paid out £4000 for the legal costs incurred to obtain this

out-of-court

settlement. These devotees came together on a web-based discussion

forum,

www.kanchiforum.org.

 

The website article was the transcript of a talk given by Mr. Mehta on

28

January 2005 on BBC Radio 4 about the Sankararaman murder case. After

months

of protracted protests, the BBC Complaints Unit authorities adjudicated

that

the talk contained "serious errors" and inaccuracies on several counts.

Mr.

Mehta had wrongly asserted that the charge sheet contained several

police

accusations of personal misconduct by the Shankaracharya. The BBC has

apologized for the errors and the delay in reporting them.

 

On a number of points Mr. Mehta's account ran counter to the findings of

the

Supreme Court of India, made public some three weeks before the BBC talk

titled "A View from India."

 

Mr. Mehta had passed over the Supreme Court verdict in total silence.

 

*Media contact details*:

 

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Old No 29

burkit Road Thyagarayanagar Chennai 600017 Ph: 044 24339500 Mibile:

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