Al Jazeera to be taken off air in India for showing wrong map of country

Transmission to be halted between April 21 and 27; Parts of Indian map displayed with Pakistan, reports say

The Indian government has called for Qatar-based channel Al Jazeera to be taken off air for five days for recurrently showing the wrong map of India in various programs.

The channel will be suspended from April 22 to midnight of April 27 by the order of India’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

Reports suggested that parts of the map were displayed with Pakistan and the islands of Lakshdweep and Andaman & Nicobar were absent.

In its order, the Indian ministry said Al-Jazeera telecast news reports in 2013 and 2014 with incorrect graphical map of India. Sources said the Indian government had issued a show-cause notice to the channel last year over the same issue.

Al Jazeera responded by explaining that their maps were automatically generated by an internationally-known software used by global news providers. It assured the government that it took their concerns very seriously and all the India and Pakistan maps were being reviewed by them before being aired.

However, the information ministry along with an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) decided that the channel had violated the provisions of the programme code; thus, halting transmission for five days.

This article originally appeared on The New Indian Express