Source: Press Trust of India
LONDON, ENGLAND, January 23, 2002: Britain’s leading radio station for ethnic minorities is to ban the term “Asian” from its news bulletins following allegations from a majority of UK-based Hindus and Sikhs that “Muslims are bringing the Asian community into disrepute in Britain and do not want to be put in the same bracket as them.” Sunrise Radio said that its non-Muslim audience no longer wanted to be associated with Muslims and were keen for the station to differentiate between different religions and countries of origin. Avtar Lit, Sunrise chief executive, said: “In the wake of September 11 and also following the race riots last year we have had a lot of calls from Sikhs and Hindus worried that in the eyes of many people, the word ‘Asian’ links them to events involving Muslims. ” Sunrise Radio, an independent station, broadcasts to more than one million listeners from its stations in London, West Midlands and Scotland. Its ban, expected to come into effect in about two months after a consultation process, highlights the tensions felt within ethnic communities across Britain. “Asian” as used in the US is a very broad term. It includes Indians, Southeast Asians, Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Indonesians, Filipinos, and others. It was brought into popular use to replace the offensive term “oriental.”