Reporters Without Orders

This week’s edition of Reporters Without Orders features our host Cherry Agarwal, along with our special correspondent Amit Bhardwaj, Prateek Goyal, and our guest Somdutt Shastri, a senior journalist, who has formerly served as editor at Dainik Bhaskar and Dainik Jagran.The discussion starts off with Prateek talking about his exclusive story pertaining to an alleged illegal transfer of land involving Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. The land belonging to Polysac Industrial Cooperative Society was allegedly transferred in order to acquire a loan for a company owned by Gadkari's sons.The discussion progresses to the recent cut in the daily wages of DTC labourers by the Arvind Kejriwal government, with Amit weighing in on different aspects of the issue. Sanatan Sanstha's branding of two India Today reporters as “terrorists” was also discussed.The discussion then moves on to media's coverage in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, with senior journalist Somdutt Shastri weighing in on topics related to election campaigns in Madhya Pradesh.Subsequently, the panel discussed several issues that the media missed out in the last week. Here, Amit talks about the recent protest by Kashmiri students at Aligarh Muslim University, Prateek points out the attack on the Additional Sessions judge’s wife and son by his gunman, while Cherry discusses the desertion of Rohingya refugee camp in South24Parganas. This and more. Listen up!#NitinGadkari #LandScam # #MeTooSanatanSanstha #DTC #Media Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s Reporters Without Orders features our host Cherry Agarwal, along with Ashish Chauhan, senior correspondent with Times of India, Ahmedabad, Christina Thomas Dhanaraj, co-founder of #DalitHistoryMonth and a volunteer for the #dalitwomenfight campaign, Amit Bharadwaj, our special correspondent, and Prateek Goyal, latest addition to the team.The conversation starts with Cherry asking Ashish about the violence against migrant workers in Ahmedabad. Ashish explains the ground situation, reason behind the violence and the role of Thakur Sena in the incident. Ashish also adds, "This gave fodder to some leaders and they started inciting sentiments in name of migrants vs local."Christina Thomas Dhanaraj weighs in on #MeToo movement, its inclusivity, and whether the movement can be called India's #MeToo moment. Prateek and Amit also weigh in. Prateek thinks that had the #MeToo campaign taken place at an earlier, our current reality could have been quite different.Moving forward, Amit talks his ground report from Haryana's Titoli village. For this and more listen up!!#MeToo #migrants #Gujarat Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Reporters Without Orders is back this week to discuss what made news, what didn’t, and what should have made headlines. This week’s show features host Cherry Agarwal along with our guests Sruthisagar Yamunan, a Legal Correspondent at Scroll.in, Chitranshul Sinha, a Supreme Court Advocate, along with in-house panellists Rohin Verma and Amit Bhardwaj.The conversation starts with the discussion of dissenting voices in the Aadhaar, Sabarimala, and Bhima-Koregaon cases. The panel discusses how judges in courtrooms have a different opinion on the same topics that they come across.“The judges will keep their personal views out of the court,” expressed Sinha. He explains that this could be due to class, caste, or even economic or social background. The panel discusses the legalities of the Aadhaar case in detail and what they mean.“The assumption is that Aadhaar benefits the poor,” added Sinha. “It might if it is implemented properly. Fundamentally, people do not understand the opposition to Aadhaar.”Rohin sheds light on the preliminary report on the retrenchment at the Press Trust of India and talks about the number of employees who were sacked, while Amit talks about the protest that was organised by the Federation of PTI Employees in Delhi and the demands made.He also explains in detail about the farmer’s protest that broke out at the Delhi-UP border and elaborates on the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh and the issues raised by the farmers. “Government after government have not paid attention to the agrarian economy. We have not made enough efforts to make it profitable. It remains a burden,” he said.Cherry goes on to ask Amit about how and why the details of the farmer’s protest remained underreported. Rohin says that the reports on the farmer’s protests are similar in nature and that the same pattern is repeated, thereby attracting a specific kind of audience. Sruthisagar agrees with Rohin but also adds that he found the recent reports on the protest better than the last one, but they still need to be better and a lot more.Tune in to find out. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s edition of Reporters Without Order features our host Cherry Agarwal, along with Newslaundry Hindi’s Rohin Verma, our correspondent Amit Bhardwaj and our guest Prem Shankar Mishra, principal correspondent, Navbharat Times, Lucknow.The podcast kicks off with a discussion on a protest called by the Safai Karamchari Andolan. Can such protests make a dent? Amit thinks these protest may not make much difference. He says manual scavenging was abolished by the Supreme Court back in 2014 but it still continues. However, protests such as these keep the debate going. With one death every five days, these debates are important. Moving on, Rohin explains how one picture got people to come together and raise funds for 11-year-old Gaurav. His father, Anil, had died a couple of days earlier while cleaning a Delhi Jal Board sewer. Rohin also explains the complications that arose later. The panel also talks about media’s coverage of manual scavenging-related issues and its role over time. In light of these deaths, the panel talks about what the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has come to be.Weighing in on the Rafale controversy, Prem says that although the media is discussing former French President Francois Hollande’s claims about Rafale, the debates miss out on the major points. This and a lot more. Listen up!#Manual scavenging #Rafale #Francois Hollande #Media coverage Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s Reporters Without Orders features our host Cherry Agarwal, along with Rohin Verma, Gaurav Sarkar and Mithun MK, senior reporter with The Newsminute.The conversation begins with Mithun telling the panel about the horrific murder of a Dalit man, Pranay Perumalla, that took place in Telangana. The 24-year-old was killed in front of his pregnant wife. Mithun tells the panel that it is 19th case of inter-caste marriage-related honor killing in Telangana since the state came into being. The panel also discusses national as well as local media’s coverage of the same.The recent murder of 43-year-old Kedar Singh Jindan, Dalit RTI activist, is also discussed. The panel also discusses media’s coverage of other caste-related issues. Does the media shy away from covering caste atrocities when victims are Dalits?The panel also talks about how newsroom composition influences media coverage. Mithun believes that the hiring policy of media houses should have affirmative action but Gaurav is not completely convinced.Rohin discusses media’s coverage of manual scavenging and the recent spate of sewer-related deaths. This, in addition to a discussion on upcoming Assembly elections in Telangana, the need for right-leaning newsrooms, need for sensitivity in reporting and more. Listen up! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s Reporters Without Orders features our host Cherry Agarwal, our guest, lawyer-turned-journalist Vakasha Sachdev from The Quint, along with Rohin Verma and Amit Bhardwaj.The discussion starts with media’s coverage of Supreme Court’s landmark verdict -- decriminalisation of Section 377. Amit talks about the way in which reporters covered the event, while Rohan weighs in about media’s need to recreate the situation and things that should have been avoided. Vakasha says that being inside the courtroom on the day of judgement, hearing the judges and their unique responses, was an amazing and emotional experience. The panel also talks about the need to strike a balance between privacy and the need for media personnel, especially TV news, to capture the moment.Cherry also asks Vakasha about the problems with courtroom-related reportage in the absence of legal expertise among those covering the beat. “It becomes challenging as it creates new pressure, creates new confusion over what’s going on,” Vakasha says.Pointing out what the media missed, Cherry says stories on intersectionality of sexuality, caste, disability, mental health, gender identity and queer movement beyond 377 were given a miss.Amit points out that Hardik Patel’s hunger strike was still being under-reported. The national media has not been doing justice to this news, he says. [Patel has now ended his hunger strike].Amit and Vakasha also weigh in on media’s failure to cover the farmers’ march in New Delhi. Amit says, “These people have been failed by the government and nobody cares.”The panel also discusses the violence that broke out at Delhi University’s Zakir Husain College. This, and more. Listen up!#Section377 #Supreme Court #Media #Hardik Patel #Farmers' march #NSA Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The conversation kicks off with a discussion on the current media landscape of the Northeast. Cherry asks Paojel to provide an insight on the media culture in the Northeast with respect to access to politicians, political biases, and even media ownership. She asks whether it is similar to legacy houses that form a larger part in the mainstream and what is it that makes the Northeast media unique in nature?Paojel explains the difference between the Northeast media system and the rest of the country and goes on to talk about the challenges faced by investigative journalists in the Northeast region.Paojel suggested that there were many stories in the Northeast that have not been given importance; he also shares some specific examples of stories which have not been given any sort of significance by the mainstream media.The discussion then moves towards Amit Bhardwaj who talks about the eleventh day of Hardik Patel’s hunger strike that has not been covered by the mainstream media. He says: “These are the priorities; if there is violence and incidents of rioting, then the mainstream media will cover it, but if someone goes the Gandhian way and is on 11th day of their hunger strike, then they will choose not to.” Amit goes on to explain the entire hunger strike situation and the reason as to why it should have been covered.The panel then discusses the kind of news that deliberately doesn’t go on air and is not considered to be of grave significance owing to the prevailing power struggle in mainstream media.Rohin sheds lights on a story related to the Mahatma Gandhi Central University in Motihari, Bihar, where, after the death of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a professor posted something on Facebook against the former Prime Minister. The next day, he was beaten up badly and still remains in a critical situation. After this incident, the CAG report on the university showed that a lot of financial irregularities had been found, but even in spite of this, the incident went unreported.The discussion then moves towards what made news—but shouldn’t have—and everyone agreed that Rahul Gandhi eating non-veg in Nepal shouldn’t have set the headlines on fire the way it did.Rahul goes on to brief us about Tushar Damgude’s FIR in relation to the Bhima-Koregaon incident, and more.Tune in to find out more.#Hardik Patel #NorthEast #Media #Rahul Gandhi Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The latest episode of Reporters Without Orders features our host Cherry Agarwal, along with Amit Bharadwaj, and guests Vishnu Varma and Prateek Goel. Varma is a Kochi-based journalist and a senior correspondent at Indian Express Digital, whereas Goel is a Pune-based reporter who covers crime and defence for a leading regional daily.The podcast begins with a discussion about the arrest of five human rights activists, including a unionist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, from different cities in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence. The arrests of five other activists in connection to an alleged plot to kill the prime minister three months ago is also discussed. Sharing details from history, Prateek tells the panel about the genesis of Bhima Koregaon and what led to the subsequent violence and arrests. The panel also discusses the inconsistencies and problems with media’s coverage of the same so far.In the course of the discussion, Prateek suggests that the letters discovered by the police were likely fabricated. He doesn’t think these activists could have been directly involved in the alleged plot to assassinate the prime minister.The discussion then shifts to rehabilitation efforts in Kerala, in the aftermath of the floods. The panel also discusses the accountability of states in such situations. Reporting from Kerala, Vivek Varma weighs in about the current rehabilitation measures that have been put in place to ensure a swift recovery.In relation to the Tamil Nadu and Kerala dispute, Vivek states that both the governments are equally responsible for the mismanagement of opening and closing of the dam shutters.Amit stated that the convictions in Mirchpur violence were underreported. Twenty people were sentenced to life Imprisonment by the Delhi high court for burning two Dalits alive in 2010. Amit also talks about the arrest of Barmer journalist and other developments in his case.This, and more. Listen up! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The latest episode of Reporters Without Orders features our host Cherry Agarwal, along with Amit Bhardwaj, Rohin Kumar and Rahul Kotiyal.The discussion begins with the news of a woman who was beaten up and then paraded naked by a violent mob in Bihar’s Bhojpur district. The panel goes on to discuss the devastation caused by the Kerala floods, as well as the media’s coverage of the deluge.The topic then moves on to Uttar Pradesh’s ban on open sacrifice of animals ahead of Bakri Eid, wherein the state’s Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, said that this measure was being undertaken so as to not hurt the religious sentiments of other communities.“When two important news events take place simultaneously, how does a newsroom decide on which one to prioritise?,” asks Cherry, posing the million-dollar question to the guests. In turn, Rahul tells her that in this age of New Media and television, it is important to deem both pieces of news as “important” and run them efficiently.The guests also discuss how Navjot Singh Sidhu’s ‘hug’ controversy was quite overrated.The conversation then moves to a heavily-loaded ground report on the Naxal encounter case in which 15 people were killed in Sukma, Chattisgarh. Rahul narrates the story as experienced by him on the ground, and points out that it wasn’t just Naxalites who were killed—but innocent tribal people as well. He also talks about the disadvantages of covering left extremists as it is never certain who might kill you.The discussion culminates with the topic of different encounter cases in Uttar Pradesh anyhow these are against the Human Rights guidelines of the National Human Rights Commission.#Sukma, #encounters #Uttar Pradesh #Yogi Adityanath #Kerala floods #newsroompriorities Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of Reporters Without Orders features our special correspondent Amit Bhardwaj and Newslaundry Hindi's Rohin Verma joining our host Cherry Agrawal, along with special guest Amandeep Singh. Amandeep is based out of Punjab and is currently with the Hindustan Times Group,The discussion kicks off with Amandeep discussing the regional and national media's coverage of 'Referendum 2020' organised by Sikhs for Justice. He also speaks about the challenges faced by regional journalists, especially those reporting from Punjab. In addition, Amandeep talks about the relationship between the mainstream media's and regional media's news cycle.Speaking about the protests in Nehru Vihar, Rohin speaks of the challenges faced by UPSC aspirants residing in the area. He also shares his experience of being a tenant in Delhi. Amit weighs in on the Delhi Rent Control Act and adds that there is less of regulation and more of exploitation.The panel also discusses media's coverage of the attack on Umar Khalid, Pallavi Joshi's video on Rafale deal, ABP News and C-Voter's survey predicting BJP's loss in three states and more.#nehru vihar #modi #WorldBiofuelDay #Referendum #2020 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.