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NDTV protests ban of India’s Daughters documentary with blank screen

A TV station in India has protested the broadcast ban of a BBC documentary about an horrific gang rape on a bus in Delhi by airing a blank screen.

India’s Daughters was scheduled to run on New Delhi Television last night to mark International Women’s Day, but the film has been banned by the government, which argued that the video – which featured an unsettling interview with a convicted rapist – could have led to major social upheaval.

NDTV India's Daughters doco

NDTV remained dark for one hour

The only images to appear on a black screen on NDTV were a flickering lamp and the name of the documentary.

The station did not publicise the move, although editorial director and anchor Sonia Singh tweeted ‘We won’t shout but we will be heard’. Associate editor Kadambini Sharma tweeted the hashtags #IndiasDaughters, #Freedom Of Expression and #protest.

The BBC has withdrawn the documentary, which was based on the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder of a 23 year-old physiotherapy student, from YouTube and Vimeo, although it is still viewable on the BBC’s iPlayer.

India's Daughter deleted from Vimeo

India’s Daughter deleted from Vimeo

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