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Journalism of Courage
As many tweeted, the death of veteran actor Shashi Kapoor on Monday was like the end of an era. Unfortunately, though, amid the outpour of condolence messages on social media, a typographical error by a news channel Times Now in one of their tweets led to a facepalm moment as Shashi Tharoor, the politician who is also known for his good looks, was named instead of Kapoor, leading to Tharoor’s office phone buzzing with condolence calls. But that wasn’t the only case of mistaken identity that happened on Monday. BBC News also ran a tribute clip on Kapoor, but the snippets accompanying the sombre package were not of Kapoor but his co-actor from Kabhi Kabhi and Deewar, Amitabh Bachchan, and his nephew actor Rishi Kapoor.
The video of the clip being broadcast on television has gone viral on social media with many people now seeking an apology from the news organisation for the gaffe. In the video, a clip of Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha from the film Kabhi Kabhie (in which, to be fair, Shashi Kapoor was the other main character) along with another of Rishi Kapoor singing the song Pyar kar liya to kya from the same film was used.
Once the faux pas had been identified on social media, tweeple started tagging BBC and asking them to apologise.
https://twitter.com/Lurganexile/status/937823571082207232
https://twitter.com/katherineschof8/status/937822919639650312
Responding to the barrage of upset tweets, Paul Royall, Editor, BBC News at Six and Ten, tweeted out an apology, saying, “#BBCNewsTen is very sorry wrong images were used to mark the death of Shashi Kapoor. Not our usual standards and I apologise for any upset.”
As it happens, this was not the first time the BBC group had a goof-up with respect to an Indian celebrity. Last year in September, the BBC News Hindi Twitter handle had confused former Indian batsmen Mohammad Kaif with a man accused in the murder of Hindustan daily’s Siwan bureau chief Rajdev Ranjan. BBC News Hindi tweeted out a link with the headline “Ex-cricketer Kaif surrenders”. Irked by the mix-up, Kaif had written: “You have crossed all limits just for a headline. Doesn’t anyone read otherwise?”
