Cops approach Indian internet body to block BBC documentary

06 March,2015 08:40 AM IST |   |  IANS

Delhi Police approached the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) to block 'India's Daughter' documentary made by BBC on the December 16, 2012 rape incident from running on internet


New Delhi: Delhi Police Thursday approached the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) - a nodal agency which deals with cyber security of the Indian internet domain - to block the documentary made by BBC on the December 16, 2012 rape incident from running on internet.


British filmmaker Leslee Udwin. Pic/ PTI

"We have approached the CERT-In to take the BBC documentary out from internet portals and video sharing website like YouTube," said a senior police official. The documentary will soon be blocked, he added. CERT-In, which is a government organisation under the union ministry of communication and information technology, works to enhance the security of India's communications and information infrastructure through proactive action and effective collaboration.

Brushing aside Indian protests, the BBC telecast the documentary early Thursday. The hour-long documentary was then uploaded on YouTube by an individual, effectively making it available to a global audience. The documentary, by British filmmaker Leslee Udwin, drew criticism from Indian MPs over how the convict came to be interviewed in jail and the sexist remarks of the prisoner's lawyer.

Earlier in the day, Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi said their main concern is to ensure that the documentary is not broadcast and disseminated in the country and efforts are being made to block it from appearing on websites. "...our objective is that any assertion which transgresses the penal laws of the country that assertion should not be broadcast and disseminated, particularly as far as we are concerned within the country," he said.

"But we will take steps to stop its further dissemination to portals. Whatever is being required in this case is being done," he added. The documentary stirred a controversy after some of the comments by one of the convicts Mukesh Singh hit the headlines Monday as he openly blamed the victim for rape. Police had on Tuesday filed a First Information Report and secured a court order restraining the media from airing the documentary.

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