Reporters Without Orders Ep 142: What ails BARC, and rape cases in Uttar Pradesh

In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Ayush Tiwari and Nidhi Suresh. 

The conversation begins with Ayush’s report on the Broadcast Audience Research Council and why its audience measurement system is “rotten”. The panel discusses how BARC’s functioning and systems are “highly manipulative” and “not accurate”. On the organisation suspending TV news ratings for three months while it “reviews protocols”, Ayush says: “India’s premier TV audience measurement agency needs to put its house in order, and a three-month suspension of TRPs will not cut it.”

The discussion moves on to a report by Nidhi and Newslaundry’s Akanksha Kumar on the rape and murder of a three-year-old in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri. Nidhi brings up the flaws in the system, such as how there’s only one forensic lab in the entire state. On covering three rape cases in Uttar Pradesh, she says, “What struck me was that no one there was as shocked as I was after hearing about these cases, as if it happened a lot, or it was normal.”

All this and a lot more as they talk about what made news this week, what didn’t, and what shouldn’t have. Tune in!

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