Cartographic error forces Al Jazeera off air
In a major embarrassment for Al Jazeera, the international news channel was forced to go off air in India for five days, as the government penalised the channel for showing an incorrect map of India on several occasions between 2013 and 2014.
Al Jazeera transmitted a blank screen with a message displaying that it is unable to air regular content“as instructed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, this channel will not be available from 00.01 hours on 22nd April till 00.01 hours on 27th April 2015.”
When questioned why, the I&B Ministry said that it had been informed that the news channel had been using an incorrect map of India in some of its shows during the last two years, following which the matter was forwarded to the Surveyor General of India (SGI).
The SGI observed that in some of the maps displayed by Al Jazeera, “a portion of Indian territory Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Chinese occupied Aksai Chin has not been shown as a part of Indian territory.” The channel also did not show Lakshadweep and the Andaman Islands in some of the maps, the SGI said.
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