One careless mistake can cost you a bomb. Well, this is what precisely happened with a major public service broadcaster. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Tuesday came under the radar of the Indian diaspora after it published an inaccurate map of India online.
The world’s oldest national broadcaster published a video broadcast about President-elect Joe Biden on BBC World Service that was titled ‘US Election 2020: What do countries around the world want from Joe Biden’. In it, they showed a graphic depicting the map of India. However, the graphic was incompletely highlighted in red with the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir missing, reported The Indian Express.
This mistake was noticed by several Indians residing in India and the UK including Labour Party MP Virendra Sharma. Highlighting the issue, Sharma then wrote a letter to the Director-General of BBC, Tim Davie. Terming the action as “deeply insulting”, he also asked for an explanation of the editorial guidelines followed.
His letter read:
“This map shows an incomplete India, it does not highlight Jammu and Kashmir which is recognised as a core and integral part of India. To represent Jammu and Kashmir as anything less than Indian is deeply insulting to millions of Indians living here in the UK and in India.”
Through his letter, Sharma, who represents the constituency of Ealing-Southall populated by the Indian diaspora in west London, asked the broadcaster in question to withdraw the graphic and republish it with the correct geographical boundaries.
“The BBC World Service is a fantastic resource, an amazing part of our soft-power and a real force for good around the world, this record is under threat if the World Service is perceived as partisan and ‘anti-India’ as is currently being asserted online.”
“As a member of the International Development Select Committee, I have seen the great work the World Service can do, I do not want to see that put at risk,” he added.
The mistake, followed by Sharma’s letter, irked several people online who asked for immediate actions on the matter. Soon, BBC apologized for mistakenly publishing the map and also updated the graphic correctly reflecting the Indian boundaries as per the standard format, reported News18.
“From London, we mistakenly published a map of India online which contained inaccuracies and is not the standard map used by BBC News. It has now been corrected. We apologise for any offence caused,” a BBC spokesperson said.
All’s well that ends well, what say?