Finally !
Father, Son and Holy War to be telecast on the National network of Doordarshan 10 am, Sunday, October 8th At 10 am on Sunday, October 8, 2006 an 11 year old battle will finally come to an end. Anand Patwardhan's 1995 documentary "Father, Son and Holy War" on the connection between communal violence and the male psyche had won two National and several international awards. But when he submitted it for telecast, Doordarshan rejected it. Patwardhan took the matter to the Bombay High Court and in 2001 the court ordered DD to telecast the film but DD chose to appeal the matter in the Supreme Court. The SC asked DD to review the film. DD's own preview panel approved the telecast but Prasar Bharati, then dominated by BJP appointees, stepped in and rejected the film. Patwardhan moved the High Court again and won a fresh order to telecast in 2004. Prasar Bharati once again went to the Supreme Court in appeal. Finally, after viewing the film, on 25 August 2006 Justice Lakshmanan and Justice Panta of the Supreme Court upheld the High Court order to telecast the film without cuts within 8 weeks of the judgement. Noting that several times in the past DD had rejected Patwardhan's documentaries until the judiciary forced them to be telecast, the Honourable Justices went so far as to pass strictures against DD and Prasar Bharati reprimanding the broadcaster for finding "flimsy excuses" time and again not to telecast Patwardhan's films. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ greenyouth mailinglist is the activist support mailinglist for kerala run by Global Alternate Information Applications (GAIA) To post to this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
