Reporters Without Orders Ep 180: Calls for killing Muslims in the capital

This week, host Basant Kumar is joined by Shivangi Saxena and Ashwine Kumar Singh of Newslaundry.

Shivangi talks about her report on an August 8 gathering at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar where the participants called for the wanton killing of Muslims in India. She recalls speaking with Uttam Upadhyay, one of those shouting for murder. “The Muslim community is a danger to the Hindu dharma,” Shivangi says Uttam told her. “For Hinduism to continue Islam needs to be eradicated. And in order to eradicate Islam we need to boycott the Muslims financially.”  

She reflects on how scary it was to report in such an environment and how she had to keep her personal feelings in check to report. She was shocked, Shivangi says, after learning that the mob had cornered another reporter, Anmol Preetam, and demanded that he shout the slogan “Jai Shri Ram”.

Ashwine and Basant discuss their story about how some people burst firecrackers near Indian hockey player Vandana Katariya’s family home in Uttarakhand after her team had failed to earn a medal at the Tokyo Olympics. They found that the incident was likely rooted in personal animus and casteism as sections of the media had reported, Basant says. “We did not meet anyone who told us casteist comments were made, though some speculated that the bursting of firecrackers was done out of jealousy,” adds Ashwine.

They also talk about the tax raids on Dainik Bhaskar and the Hindi paper’s journalism, how the Delhi police have acted in the last two years, and a lot more as they talk about what made news, what didn’t, and what shouldn’t have. 

Tune in.

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