HATFIELD, UNITED KINGDOM, March 24, 2002: Mahendra Joshi of the human rights organization, “Cause We Care,” reports that they have successfully gotten the BBC to replace the word “militant” with the word “activist” when describing the Hindus attacked on the train in Godhra. At first, the BBC said, “Hundreds of people have died in India in the past two weeks after Muslim activists attacked a train carrying Hindu militants back from Ayodhya.” Many other reports used the term “militant Hindus” when describing the Hindus killed, who were almost all women and children. Cause We Care lodged an official complaint with the BBC, backed by hundreds of e-mails from supporters. They received a reply from the BBC Newsonline stating, “We recognize that the use of the words referred to in your e-mail was not appropriate. Accordingly, we have changed the sentence concerned.” Since then the BBC has been using “Hindu activists” in their reports on the train attack. The details are available at “source” above. They are next approaching the New York Times on the same issue.
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