BBC apologises for ‘blasphemy’ tweet

Says it never intended to imply that blasphemy should be punished and that the tweet was poorly worded

BBC Asia has apologised after it posted the question “what is the right punishment for blasphemy?” on its Asian Network Twitter account, a media report said yesterday.

The tweet that was intended to promote a debate about blasphemy on social media in Pakistan with presenter Shazia Awan, went viral and attracted sharp criticism worldwide, following which the apology was posted, reported the Guardian.

In its apology on Saturday the network said it never intended to imply that blasphemy should be punished and said the tweet on Friday was poorly worded.

The original tweet “what is the right punishment for blasphemy?” was aimed at starting a public debate by tweeting to @ ShaziaAwan using the hashtag #AsianNetwork to write about people’s take on the subject.

“Apologies for poorly worded question from #AsianNetwork … Q[uestion] was in context of Pak[istan] asking FB [Facebook] to help we shpoul]d have made that clear,” said the network.

“We never intend to imply blasphemy should be punished. Provocative question that got it wrong,” it added.

It emerged last week that Pakistan had asked Facebook and Twitter to help identify Pakistanis suspected of blasphemy so it could prosecute them or pursue their extradition.

Under the country’s blasphemy laws, anyone found to have insulted Islam or Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) can be sentenced to death.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, said an official in Pakistan’s Washington embassy had approached the two social media companies in an effort to identify Pakistanis, either within the country or abroad, who recently shared material deemed offensive to Islam.