YouTube has restricted access to a 45-minute report aired by Canada’s Government-funded broadcaster CBC, focusing on the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18 last year.
The report, featured on the programme “The Fifth Estate,” included an extensive interview with Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the general counsel of the separatist group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ).
According to CBC, YouTube informed them that it had received an order from India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to block access to the video within India. As a result, the content was “blocked from view” in India while remaining accessible elsewhere in the world.
Furthermore, CBC reported that the Indian Government had also approached X, formerly known as Twitter, requesting the blocking of access to the content on its platform. X stated that it was obligated to comply with Indian law but expressed disagreement with the action, asserting that freedom of expression should extend to such posts.
The programme, “The Fifth Estate,” had reached out to India’s High Commission in Ottawa for participation, but received no response. Despite India’s High Commissioner to Ottawa, Sanjay Kumar Verma, appearing on several Canadian networks, CBC was not among them.
A CBC spokesperson affirmed that the report, titled “Contract To Kill,” had undergone thorough research, vetting by senior editorial leaders, and met the broadcaster’s journalistic standards.
However, some members of the Indo-Canadian community, including Maninder Singh Gill, MD of Surrey-based Radio India, criticized the programme. In a letter to CBC president Catherine Tait, Gill described it as “biased” and “propaganda,” expressing dissatisfaction with its portrayal of the Khalistan movement and the region’s history.
