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Newslaundry
Newslaundry
National
NL Team

As family mourns, Times Now recreates Manipur musician’s murder with AI clips

Times Now Manipur Murder New Delhi Mohammed Zubair Pawan Khera South Delhi Police

On September 8, a Times Now show titled “Decoding Now”, which airs just before the primetime slot, ran a segment on Chongtham Vikram Singh, a 55-year-old Manipuri musician who was beaten to death outside his South Delhi home late on Sunday night. To illustrate what happened, the channel used a sequence of AI-generated clips.

The clips included an AI-generated version of Singh confronting a group of youths outside his apartment; the youths chasing him; the mob assaulting him; and a bloodied man being carried down a staircase. It was captioned “Fists & Blows Rained on Vikram”. Other clips showed a bloodied victim lying in front of his apartment door, being carried down the stairs in a blood-stained T-shirt by a character who is presumably a family member, and then carried into an ambulance.

All these clips ran under banners like “Delhi Hangs Its Head In Shame”, “Manipuri Musician Murdered” and “What Killed: Racism or Rage?” as anchor Meghna Deka and panellists Ponting Thokchom of the North East Students’ Society and journalist Subir Bhaumik discussed the tragedy.

Many users on social media called out the channel for airing AI-generated clips depicting a murder and urged them to spare a thought for the grieving family.

Pawan Khera, Rajya Sabha MP from the Congress party, tweeted: “There is nothing responsible or journalistic about turning a real person’s violent death into manufactured television imagery. A man’s tragic death and his family’s grief are not a spectacle to be dramatised for TV ratings. Desperate. Disgusting. Shameful.”

Replying to Times Now’s post on X that aired these clips, writer and stand-up comedian Varun Grover said: “Please delete this sensationalist, shameless use of AI to milk a tragedy.”

The victim’s own sister-in-law, meanwhile, asked on X whether someone could sue the channel for posting such content.

Journalists also criticised the channel.

Mohammed Zubair, founder of Alt News, meanwhile posted screenshots of a January 2023 advisory issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to TV channels, warning against broadcasting visuals including dead bodies, blood, and physical assault “without editing” and without regard for “good taste and decency.” It cited examples such as unblurred assault footage shown repeatedly, and said such content has an “adverse psychological impact” on viewers, including children, and invades victims’ privacy. It asked channels to exercise editorial discretion with footage sourced from social media.

The advisory was written for real footage circulating online. Although the channel's “AI GENERATED” tag distinguished the clips from real footage, they were not generic illustrations by any stretch. These AI-generated clips explicitly reconstructed specific elements of what happened to Singh from the confrontation, the chase and the assault, to him being carried to hospital.

So far, the channel hasn't issued a formal statement in response to the public criticism.

More media insensitivity

But this is not the first time the media has trampled on the sensitivities of Singh’s family. A news agency had broadcast footage of their apartment in Delhi, which provoked a response.

On September 8, the family issued a statement on social media, stating that some in the media had invaded their privacy “by sharing videos and pictures of our apartment in Delhi.” This, the family stated, had caused them “significant distress during this vulnerable time” and urged the media to respect their privacy and allow them “the space and dignity to grieve.”

What has happened in the case so far?

The Delhi Police have so far registered an FIR against eight individuals, including a minor, for Singh’s murder. All the accused have been apprehended and booked under Section 103(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which penalises mob lynching and hate-crime murders committed by a group of five or more people.

Citing the Delhi Police, a Times of India report on Wednesday stated that the accused had allegedly said they wanted to “teach him a lesson” after he objected to noise outside his home in the Kilokari area of South Delhi, and did not expect the assault to turn fatal. According to the publication, the police are examining a possible racial angle but have reportedly found no instance of a racial slur used against Singh during the altercation.

Singh, a pioneer of Manipur's rock music scene, had reportedly lived in Delhi’s Kilokari area with his family for 17 years before he was killed. Following the tragedy on Sunday night, hundreds from the Northeastern community protested outside Sunlight Colony police station, and even held a candlelight vigil in his memory.

Update: Angellica Aribam, a political activist from Manipur, has sent a legal notice to Times Now “to immediately remove the AI video depicting the murder of Chongtham Vikram Singh and issue a public apology within 24 hours.”

Our new project visits the landscape described in Vande Mataram as it stands today, to ask what has become of the country the national song sings about. Support it here.

Newslaundry is a reader-supported, ad-free, independent news outlet based out of New Delhi. Support their journalism, here.

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