Reporters Without Orders

In this episode, the host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Ayush Tiwari to discuss the television ratings scam and the WhatsApp chats between Republic TV’s editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and Partho Dasgupta, the former CEO of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC).Ayush begins by pointing out that the chats revealed something that everyone already suspected—that behind all the nationalistic clamour on Indian television news, there is nothing but a network of opportunists and middle men who line their pockets and buy influence.Through the length of the discussion, Ayush cites his recent media reports and goes on to highlight how BARC, a government-mandated body, has been compromised at different levels. From Republic TV and Zee reaching millions of viewers illegally to a former minister in the information and broadcasting ministry allegedly “keeping aside” a multi-crore complaint against Republic TV, Ayush explains just how deep-rooted the corruption is. The duo also discuss the most shocking and the funniest bits of the WhatsApp chats.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! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, the host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Basant Kumar and Ayush Tiwari.From a buffalo’s funeral in Meerut to BJP MP Hema Malini’s ignorant comments about the farmers -- the trio share a few laughs talking about the most bizarre news stories they heard during the week. The conversation then moves to the farmer protests. Snigdha shares the latest updates including the Supreme Court-appointed committee to resolve the crisis, which in turn brings her to the objections raised against it.Based on their report, Ayush and Basant highlight how each of the four members of the committee appointed by the apex court have, in the recent past, publicly expressed their support for the three contentious farm laws. Basant also talks about the Bhartiya Kisan Union and its various factions. The trio discuss how the state and a section of TV media has pushed farmers into a corner.Apart from the farmer protests, the panel also discusses Uttar Pradesh government’s advertorial in TIME magazine’s India edition and how a section of Indian media ran it as a report. In relation to the same, Ayush and Snigdha also discuss the evolving use of press releases over the years. 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! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, the host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Basant Kumar and Akanksha Kumar.The conversation starts off with some bizarre news stories and quickly moves to Basant’s report on the association of right-wing groups with most cases registered under the new anti-conversion law in Uttar Pradesh. The discussion then shifts to Akanksha’s report on how a local right-wing body disrupted a consensual interfaith marriage in Lucknow. The triad discusses the role of local fringe groups before and after the new law came to be.The three also talk about the farmers' protest and Basant’s report on the 12 farmer groups who extended support to the new agriculture laws. “Five  out of 12 farmers associations were directly connected to BJP,” says Basant.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! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Not a single year goes by when some part of our country is struck by a natural disaster. This year was no different, with floods, cyclones, droughts, and wildfires. Add to that the Covid-19 pandemic.In this episode, the host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Assam correspondent, Supriti David, to discuss the devastating annual floods in Assam caused by the Brahmaputra river. Supriti covered a stretch of over 1000 kms across the banks of the treacherous river to document the aftermath of the floods. She begins by giving some background on the nature and duration of the floods. On the government’s outlook towards the annual floods, Supriti points out: “What the government and the people affected have in common is that they’ve accepted this for what it is: a natural disaster. They think that because it cannot be prevented, the damage that accompanies it cannot be mitigated, but that’s not true.” Supriti recounts how among the villages that she visited, none of the residents had a good word to say about the government response to the annual calamity.The duo also discuss the consequences of the floods in multiple villages across Assam’s districts. In case of Borphalang village, Supriti describes how it remains submerged and cut off from the rest of the region for half the year.Supriti’s in-depth ground reports, which are a part of the Newslaundry Sena ‘Disastrous Consequences’ project can be found here. 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! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, the host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Nidhi Suresh and The Hindu’s Uttar Pradesh correspondent, Omar Rashid.The conversation starts off with the panelists sharing the strangest news stories they heard during the week. They then move on to discuss what the bogey of Love Jihad really means? “Basically it’s a political lie created by the right-wing to criminalise the behaviour of Muslim men when it comes to their interaction with Hindu women,” says Omar. The trio also discuss, in detail, the recent case in Moradabad where an interfaith couple were held under Uttar Pradesh’s new anti-conversion law despite repeatedly stating that the marriage and conversion was consensual. Nidhi and Omar, who covered the story from the ground, describe their experience and highlight the lapses and contradictions in the case. On the role of the media in propping up the narrative of ‘love jihad’, Omar says: “I feel the media really plays a big role to send a message to the larger audience that something like this exists and to define their biases, their prejudices and conservative practises into a very well formulated idea called Love Jihad.”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! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Basant Kumar and Anna Priyadarshini.The conversation hits off with the bizarre news stories, from a fisherman finding the world’s biggest blob of whale vomit worth 2.4 million pounds to a wife of a dead Patiala man receiving a ‘sample-collected’ SMS on her husband’s phone.The discussion begins with Anna and Ayush’s report on ex-soldiers at the farmer protests denouncing the Naxal jibes at them by Union Minister Piyush Goyal. Last week, the minister had alleged, without evidence, that the ongoing protests against the new farm laws had been infiltrated by “Naxal and Maoist elements”. A section of the media too had claimed the protests had been “hijacked by anti-national forces” and “foreign powers”. The most apt response to the allegations was from a 75-year-old former subedar of the Indian army, Joginder Singh, who said “Narendra Modi and Amit Shah were children when we fought wars for this country. So if they call patriots like me Naxali, then why should we even answer them? It is like mocking a priest about his mantra. Or lecturing a farmer about agriculture, as they’re doing. They should be ashamed of themselves.”With the fall in Delhi’s temperature and the subsequent rise in the number of deaths associated with the farmer protests, Snigdha moves to Basant’s report. Basant gives the example of Shri Krishnalal, a 65 year-old accountant who died in front of Niranjan Singh Dhola, the Punjab Secretary of Indian Farmers Union (Rajewal). So far, at least 20 people associated with the protests have died.Based on his interaction with the agitating farmers on the ground, Basant says they are prepared for anything coming their way. He adds, “The farmers don't mind dying. They’ve taken the issue to heart.”Anna weighs in and says, “When we spoke to these ex-servicemen, they described it as their last war. One of them said, we don’t have anything to lose ‘ab toh jeet ke hi jaana hai.’ That's what they said and that was obviously echoed throughout.”This and a lot more as they talk about what made news, what didn’t, and what shouldn’t have. Tune in! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Supriti David and Scroll’s Arunabh Saikia . Through the length of the episode, the panel discusses the Baghjan oil field fire in Assam, its consequences and the role of Oil India Limited.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! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Basant Kumar and Nidhi Suresh. Through the length of the episode, the panel discusses several aspects of the farmers’ protest. They shed light on the media’s coverage, the farmers’ perspective, the role political parties are playing, and the steps taken by the government to resolve the issues.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! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Ayush Tiwari and Akanksha Kumar “if you give birth to a girl, we will not let you or her stay alive.” This is what young Pappi Devi’s in-laws told her before she and her newborn baby girl died in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district. The conversation begins with Akanksha narrating the young woman’s story and the mysterious circumstances surrounding their deaths. Questioning why no arrests have been made in the case till date, she talks about how the victim’s family had to file 15 complaints before an FIR was registered four months after the incident. Akanksha and Ayush both term Uttar Pradesh as an “absentee state”. Next, Ayush talks about his report on the sudden shut down of HuffPost India. He labels it as “dramatic” and goes on to add that the website may be the first “casualty” of the new FDI scheme launched by the current government for digital media organisations. The new policy restricts foreign investment in Indian digital media to 26 per cent. Snigdha points out how this further reduces the space for independent media in the country. Lastly, the panel discusses Ayush’s second story, on Sudarshan News’s show ‘UPSC Jihad’. Ayush explains how the show propagated a conspiracy theory on the infiltration of Muslims in the Indian bureaucracy. He talks about how the Supreme Court ordered the show to be taken off air, saying it is “in bad taste and there is a likelihood that it would produce communal attitudes.” The panel also calls out the government for deflecting responsibility and unfairly restricting the digital news space instead. 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! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.