Reporters Without Orders

The latest episode of Reporters Without Orders features our host Amit Bhardwaj, Rohin Verma, two-time Ramnath Goenka awardee Rahul Kotiyal, and Raghava M, Mangalore senior correspondent from The Hindu.The podcast kicks off with a discussion on the risks of reporting from a communally-volatile region like Dakshina Kannada of Karnataka. The Hindu’s Raghava speaks of his experience and how even small spats between members of two communities can flare up into a full-blown riot-like situation. However, he said, as he sticks to the bare facts while reporting, he has not received any threat from Hindu or Muslim fringe groups operational in the region so far. Raghava and the panel also discuss the acquittal of accused including the Ram Sena chief Pramod Muthalik in the 2009 pub attack case.Rahul discusses the row over the elevation of Justice KM Joseph to the Supreme Court and the stand-off between the apex court and the central government. The Chhattisgarh Police has gunned down Maoists in Sukma region of the state. Rohin points out the silence in the media over the Sukma encounter and the questions being raised by activists on the identity of those killed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The latest episode of Reporters Without Orders features our jugaad host Amit Bhardwaj along with Rohin Verma, two-time Ramnath Goenka awardee Rahul Kotiyal, and Aroon Deep from medianama.com.The panel discusses the Data Protection draft bill where Aroon explains how the draft bill will enable the users to give and withdraw consent for informational data on them. “The only reason this bill exists right now because the Supreme Court essentially nudged the government to setup data protection framework in the first place,” says Aroon. He added that India lacked the legal framework for informational privacy. “What is going to change with this bill is that the information collection won’t happen in darkness. Every data controller will be accountable for what it collects, whether it has got consent from you for the data it has collected,” he further adds. The panel weighs in to add that due to lack of internet literacy in the country, these legislations will make the least difference on the ground.The panel discusses Rohin’s exclusive report for Newslaundry Hindi which lists out 15 children shelter homes in Bihar where cases of alleged sexual and physical harassment were found by the audit report done by the TISS. “Accused Brajesh Thakur (in the Muzaffarpur children shelter home rape cases) was arrested by the police very late. Despite the arrest, he got admitted in the hospital for 15 days,” says Rohin. He points out the laxity displayed by the district administrations and the police in the cases pointed out by the TISS report. The administration of only three districts has acted on the findings of the TISS report that too after months. “Those running these shelter homes are not ordinary people. For instance, Nari Gunjan, in Patna, is run by Sudha Varghese. She is a Padma Shree awardee. Serious mismanagement was found in the centre run by her, and yet there is no action against it,” he added citing the reasons for a possible delay in the police action in these cases. Amit and Rahul discuss how the local media and civil society in Bihar has failed to outrage in the wake of the Muzaffarpur rapes reported at the children shelter home. Rahul points out the society in general often fail to outrage in the sexual abuse cases where the victims belong to weaker economic and social classes – as it happened with the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape victims.The panel also discusses how the stories related to the police raid and alleged assault of residents of Ahmedabad’s Chharanagar locality, where Chharas - a Denotified Tribes (DNT) lives, went under-reported. Amit also adds that TV media largely under-reported or ignored the stories concerning Delhi Lokayukta giving a clean chit to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the case based on allegations levelled by rebel AAP lawmaker Kapil Mishra. 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 Verma, two-time Ramnath Goenka awardee Rahul Kotiyal, and Anoo Bhuyan from The Wire.The podcast kicks off with a discussion on media's narrative around Akbar Khan's lynching in Alwar. “If you go through our story, we have actually demolished the police’s version of what happened that night, point by point," says Amit. He also points out the importance of the three hours that elapsed between the incident and the time taken to reach the Ramgarh CHC.Cherry adds, “What I found missing from the larger media narrative was that the two accused were moving around with the policemen.” Amit weighs in to add that the media's narrative changed on July 22 -- the blame shifted from the gau rakshaks to gau rakshaks and the police.Rest of the panel weighs in too. Anoo adds that she didn’t feel the issue had been obfuscated in the English print and online media, while Rahul emphasises the need for minutely questioning the police’s version of events.Amit expresses his concerns over the disturbing parallels that exist between Akbar’s case and Pehlu Khan’s case.Subsequently, the panel discusses media's coverage of #Section377. Anoo weighs in on the problems that exist across Indian news organisations and stresses upon the need for more inclusive newsrooms.Rohin concurs with Anoo, and points out that sometimes a callous attitude is adopted by the media in its reportage on LGBTQ issues.Speaking on the issue, Rahul points out the clear division that still exists between Hindi and English media's reportage of the issues related to Section 377. Nevertheless, he says, “things have gotten better”. The panel also discusses if reporters are equipped to handle sensitive conversations.The gang also discusses the state of health journalism in India. Anoo details the challenges faced by health reporters in India, with people still having regressive attitudes and at times, treating it as an extension of 'Lifestyle and Wellness' reporting.Rohin points out the hazards of what he calls “baba ji ki booti" reporting, which is reportage done at the cost of important issues like the death of children in Bihar from Japanese encephalitis.The panel also discusses how Muzaffarnagar case was under-reported. For this and more, Listen up!#Section 377 #Alwar lynching #health journalism Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 28 of Reporters Without Orders features our host Cherry Agarwal, along with Rohin Verma, two-time Ramnath Goenka award-winning Rahul Kotiyal, and Atul Dev of The Caravan.Atul begins by explaining the gist of his latest story -- a profile of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. “There are a whole bunch of charges against (Indian CJI Dipak Misra) in the impeachment motion that was eventually rejected by Venkaiah Naidu…I look at his entire career, I examine how these charges came to be, how these charges came to public light. Then I also look at his family history…There’s an analysis of his High Court and Supreme Court judgments and coming up to right now, with everything that has transpired in the Supreme Court in the past year…”Cherry then asks Rahul why he chose to explore the story of communal violence in Uttarakhand. "It’s been 18 years since Uttarakhand was created, and it was an area of Western UP which was never communally charged up. However, these increased in the past few years. Almost a dozen big incidents like that of shops being burnt and destroyed."“In the hilly districts of Western UP, no place has a Muslim population of higher than 3 per cent, but even there people have the fear that their sources are being taken over by a foreign other," explains Rahul. He then remarks on the Right-wing's tying of this mentality to the mass migration of Rohingya Muslims to the region. “If you look on-ground, you will hardly find any Rohingya over there. This narrative is spreading really fast on social media.”After Rahul remarks about the lack of analytical or critical local coverage of the event, Cherry comments, “It’s up to the local media to take a side.”On the writing process (a 23-page story), Atul says, “You just have to sit down and get done with it.” He also reveals the role of the newsroom in the creation of the story. “After I give them the story, I think 7 or 8 people are actively involved for a whole month…”“In the end, everything that I had found, I was able to put down," adds Atul. On being asked if he was fearful about writing on the sitting CJI, he comments, “There is no fear per se but it’s more difficult to find people who are going to talk to you.”The panel then moves on to the Hindi media’s coverage of a Dalit groom getting on a horse for the first time at his wedding procession. “What should have caught everyone’s eye is that even now someone has to fight to get a horse, just because they come from a particular community," a panelist adds.“Looking at this and the Chamandih story, it appears as though neither development nor weddings can happen without the caste angle," adds Rahul.The panel then discusses subscriber models and how to produce sustainable and constructive story-telling. For more, listen in!#Supreme Court #Chief Justice of India #Dipak Misra #Hindi media #journalism model #paywalls #Rohingya Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The latest episode of Reporters Without Orders features our host Cherry Agarwal, along with Rohin Verma, Amit Bhardwaj and our special guest Abhishek Dey from Scroll.in.Kicking off the discussion, Amit says Jio got quite some coverage. “Jio is like any other telecom network in the country, why do you have to show it [as much] or give wall-to-wall coverage to whatever is happening during the launch? I think a small package or a couple of online stories would do, unless Jio is paying a lot of money.”Cherry adds, “In that case, they should have been putting a disclaimer, if it was about money in return for coverage.”Speaking about an event that was under-reported, Amit says, “Around 14,000 political activists and bandh supporters were on the streets and were detained by Jharkhand police. Majorly, none of the news channels gave it coverage during the day.”Abhishek speaks about the media's coverage of mob lynchings fuelled by WhatsApp rumours about child-lifters in Assam. “There are two things which are operating [contributing], primarily, one is the fear of the outsider, and the other would be technology. The victims in all these cases are outsiders.”Abhishek also speaks about how the idea of a child-lifter that was traditionally used to control the behaviour of children is now manifesting into a mob culture. "When we look into these kinds of things, we should always correlate them with development indices," he adds. “The solution should be designed in the context of the people which it is aimed for," comments Cherry.Rohin feels that lynching doesn’t seem to be an issue for the general public. “Jo humare regional akhbaar hai, unme iss tarah ki khabrein aa nahi rahi hain, aur bohot kam aa rahi hain, toh logon ke liye lynching koi bohot badi samasya nahi hai.”He adds, “WhatsApp ka iss tareekey ka prabhav hai ki padha-likha aadmi bhi apni padhai ko galat manta hai aur WhatsApp ko sahi manta hai. [The impact of WhatsApp is such that even educated people attach more value to WhatsApp over their own learning].”To which Cherry states, “I think it underlines the importance of making media literacy a part of school curriculum.”Rohin then speaks about a report that no one seems to be covering -- a story about the displacement of villagers of the Mahadalit community from Chamandih village in Bihar’s Gaya. The villagers were evicted from their land by Indian Railways. The story received no local coverage, save for a small piece in Dainik Jagran.For this and more, listen up!#JIO #WhatsApp #mob lynching #Assam #Media Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of Reporters Without Orders has our in-house reporter Amit Bhardwaj joining our host Cherry Agrawal, along with special guests Vishakha Saxena from Asia Times and Arunabh Saikia from Scroll.in.The discussion kicks off with Cherry asking the participants to comment on the Supreme Court’s decision to extend the deadline to publish the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to July 30th. Arunabh comments on how the government is planning to establish the number of citizens in Assam and how it will affect them. “It’s a complicated process," he says, which necessitates one to “establish their connection to someone who was there before 1971...this could be anything from your father or grandfather’s name on a voter list before 1971.”Speaking about the verification processes, Arunabh explains that the process is long, as different states need to send in their data in the case of migrants. “It’s clear to everyone in the state that this could be horrific…because currently illegal migrants are being held in detention camps.” Arunabh remarks that it is a “bleak future ahead”.Citing a report by The Hindu on the Citizen Amendment Bill, Cherry asks if this Bill is the method by which the “government is trying to change the definition of illegal migrants”. She also asks about the possible impact of the Bill, if passed, on the NRC list.Arunabh responds, “They are kind of changing who a foreigner is in India. If the Bill is enforced, then the NRC process becomes largely redundant…what it does is, it makes six years of a gigantic bureaucratic process largely redundant.” He also remarks that it is “essentially an anti-Muslim Bill.”The panel also discusses the local and national media's coverage of the NRC.While Arunabh feels that the quantity of coverage was sufficient, he says that “the coverage could have been better” in terms of the quality. According to him, the issue of illegal migrants in Assam is an “immensely complex one. There are multiple academic interpretations." He adds, "It is definitely xenophobic to a certain extent, but there was also an element of class struggle."Amit joins in. He asks Arunabh if there is a tendency to cover bizarre comments made by leaders instead of covering issues of governance and the “morally corrupt” appointment of officials, citing the Tripura governor’s recommendation of a BJP member to be appointed to the government.Arunabh agrees, he adds that there is much more to be covered in Tripura other than Biplab’s statements. Perhaps its harder to find these stories as “covering corruption requires the reporter to be underground, go through paperwork…it requires real digging which a lot of us find hard to do”, he adds.Now over to Vishakha, who feels that the June 26 Thomson Reuters survey which found that India was the most dangerous country for women was “quite under-reported and the reaction to it was also quite conflicting". Cherry disagrees, pointing to prime-time debates about the survey on news channels such as NewsX and CNN-News18.While there can be some contention about the methodology, because of the small sample size of 550 experts, the report should rather have been used as a trigger for a larger debate, Cherry says.“We don’t need any Thomson Reuters report or any UN report to realise what is happening in our country," comments Amit.Vishakha, Amit, and Arunabh also weigh in on gender equality in the newsroom. Then there are Amit's remarks about PM Modi’s recent goof-up in his speech in Maghar which was under-reported. There's more, listen up!#Media #Assam #NationalRegisterofCitizens #Modi #WomenInNewsrooms Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Reporters Without Orders is celebrating its 25th episode. Our host Cherry Agarwal is joined by in-house reporter Amit Bhardwaj and Campus Politik editor Sumedha Pal, along with Sidhartha Dutta, Principal Correspondent, Indo-Asian News Service.The media coverage of Hapur lynching case is debated by the panel. Amit feels the “story developed slowly” but “got enough coverage”. He referred to the incident as “one of the slow-burn stories” that gain momentum in the media over a period of time. Cherry asks, “Why do you think this got coverage only after it developed to a certain stage?”Sidhartha talks about the incident being referred to as a case of road rage even though the evidence suggested otherwise. He adds, "I find it really alarming." Amit, following the meeting with the victim’s family, mentions the “the kind of horror they had gone through” and also shares other details of the incident. Sidhartha confesses, “Maybe so much of detail, I wouldn't have known had you not told me,” in support of his argument that the incident was not covered enough.Turning the conversation to another aspect of media criticism, Cherry asks, “We make comparisons to other events…do you think these comparisons are fair?” To which, Sumedha adds, “Such questions need a lot of self-reflection."Meanwhile, Amit impresses upon the prioritisation of stories in terms of media coverage. He says, “It depends upon news development on that particular day."As an agency reporter covering All India Congress Committee, Siddharth talks about Congress party’s relationship with the media. Sidhartha says, “It is imperative for reporters to always get the reaction of a principal Opposition party." Meaning to say that Congress' "position as the principal Opposition” is a probable reason for the party getting wider media coverage.Sumedha speaks about her report on sexual harassment allegations levelled against the NSUI national president by a former female party worker. She says, “Often stories of sexual harassment either end up becoming sensationalised or they are reduced to nothing." Amit says, “I am not drawing any conclusion about Fairoz Khan’s case”. He also mentions about the complexities of the case and the need for a thorough inspection into allegations. He also talks about media's possible reaction “had it been any ABVP member, from even a district member of the committee…Social media narrative would have been made by left-liberals,” he adds.For a third consecutive week, Amit says, stories from Jharkhand has been under-reported by the Big Media. For more details, listen up! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of Reporters Without Orders begins with a farewell to Nidhi, our Kashmir correspondent. We are sad to see her go but wish her the best for her future endeavours.Also on the panel, we have Cherry, Amit, Rohin and Sumedha. The discussion kicks off with Jammu and Kashmir's former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's press conference in the aftermath of Bharatiya Janata Party’s withdrawal of support.Nidhi, who was at the press conference, commenting on the nature of the relationship between the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the BJP, says, “From day one, it has been a tough marriage. Especially, in the last few months, there have been mounting disagreements between the two parties, especially post-Kathua and the ceasefire, and Shujaat Bukhari’s killing. I spoke to one of the senior members of the PDP, and they basically said that it is not shocking.”Speaking of her own experiences in the aftermath of Bukhari’s murder, Nidhi says, “...today, I was going to Pulwama to cover another incident and three to four taxi drivers cancelled on me. Locals were unwilling to come with me because they don’t want to be seen with an Indian journalist.” She adds, “Other journalists have also been warned not be seen with a non-local out in the field because now you never know who is watching.”Assuming that the ‘Plot to Kill Prime Minister’ news story would be over, Sumedha watched TV news. She says, “What caught my eye was that there were these promos talking about this big exposé, telling you who the masterminds are. So I thought, I should definitely look for what the exposé has to bring to me.” She adds, “Unfortunately, even after an hour, I couldn’t find what the exposé was trying to establish. It was a hollow exposé, and a lot of noise for nothing.”Rohin shares the story of a medical student who left a shocking note before committing suicide. The victim was unable to pay high fees and was allegedly subjected to harassment on behalf of the college administration. He says, “The reason is that when the fees were raised, she had approached Jabalpur High Court, after which the college administration started harassing her on a personal level.” He adds, “Because she was a middle-class person and she couldn’t pay that kind of fees, she wrote a letter to her parents saying she didn’t want to trouble them, which is why she committed suicide. This is nowhere to be found in mainstream media.”Amit talks about Arvind Kejriwal’s decision to revoke his dharna. Voicing his opinions on Kejriwal’s supposed obstructionist behaviour, Amit says, “When the IAS officers are saying that there is no strike in Delhi, they are partially correct, because the AAP is saying the IAS officers are on ‘partial’ strike. All these officers are coming to work, they are reporting to the secretariat, but they are Amit asks, “Is there any sentiment amongst the locals that this whole idea of using violence to achieve your ultimate goal that is Azadi is useless...Even the voices like Shujaat Bukhari are being allegedly murdered by these gangs.”Cherry speaks about a report in The Hoot which revealed that the main accused in the murder of journalist Sudip Datta Bhaumik has allegedly threatened the prime witness in the case. Cherry also speaks about a plethora of hashtags floating around the BJP-PDP break up. She observes, “As soon as the news broke that the BJP was withdrawing its support from the PDP, hashtags like #BJPdumpsPDP or #BJPdisownsPDP were being circulated but #BJPabandonsKashmir was given a miss."Listen up!#BJPDumpsPDP #ShujaatBukhari #PlotToKillPM Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Reporters Without Orders, Cherry is joined by Rohin and Amit. Parthshri Arora from Vice India also joins the panel.Informing the panel about Delhi government’s idea of statehood, Amit says, “When covering Aam Aadmi Party, there will be very dull days and there’ll be active days, and the days when the party or its leaders are active is the best as well as the worst day for any reporter covering that beat.”Speaking of media's coverage of the issue, Amit agrees with Cherry and states that for a news piece ‘breaking’ in the city, it [Delhi statehood] should have seen more coverage.Parth says that AAP does have a history of beefing up with Big Media. To which Amit replies, “Depends...there’ll be times when AAP will be cheering for news organisations and editors and there’ll be times when they’ll be completely harsh and the attack will be very below the belt.”Rohin speaks about the Aligarh Muslim University controversy where a couple of students are facing criticism and a case of blasphemy because of a picture circulated on social media. The picture showed these AMU students drinking beer at a bar during Ramazan. He expresses resentment against the university administration and says, “If a university cannot support its students by expanding their limited freedom, if it cannot encourage students to challenge established notions; then that university going on to produce meritorious PhD scholars won't matter -- because it won’t make a better society.”Amit and Rohin speak about the bias in media coverage. Rohin points out that sections of the media refrained from covering this incident despite our knowledge of their general viewpoint on such matters. He explains, “They do not want a debate on the issue. They are simply bent upon creating a demarcation. They won’t hold a talk on ‘blasphemy’. But they’d create a divide by saying things like why so much noise over a Muslim’s faith being hurt and not...(when a Hindu icon is disrespected...). This only emboldens the courage of fringe groups of all sections.”Parth speaks about Priyanka Chopra-starrer Quantico and Rega Jha's from Buzzfeed India. He says, “In terms of influence, which 26-year-old has ever wielded this much influence online, on discourse, on feminist issues, on anything really...And she has now built this empire, the biggest, most influential youth media company in the country and now she’s just quitting. I think that’s incredibly big news! And she will be a thought leader. She will be so many things for the next thirty years. And we’ll get to see it.”According to Amit, Akhilesh Yadav vacating his official bungalow was underplayed by sections of the mainstream media.Cherry discusses the issue of Puthiya Thalaimurai TV that was booked by Tamil Nadu police for statements made by its guest during a debate. Parth says that in online media, the op-eds are run with a disclaimer at the end. So maybe, you could run a disclaimer that panelist’s views are their own. "Even then it's a grey area," he adds.Amit brings the panel's attention back to the issue of Delhi's statehood and Parth discusses Kejriwal's media strategy. To know more, listen up! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Reporters Without Orders, the discussion kicks off with the issue of sale of swords and blades online, as reported by The Indian Express. Rohin says, “If we study the Arms Act (1959) and Arms Rules (2016), all non-fire arms that are over 9 inches in length and more than 2 inches in width require a license for both sale and purchase.” Rohin has also done a story on the same. For his story, Rohin also talked to a seller based in Jalandhar and tried to place an order for 1500 swords. He asked the seller if the delivery could be stopped on the way? To his surprise, the seller told him that a written note from a politician could be a good antidote. “You just get a written note from a politician. When the politician has given permission, who are the police to stop?” the seller told Rohin.He also speaks about the representation of the farmers' protests in TV media. “They are showing pictures that show farmers throwing vegetables and milk. They are trying to show that the viewer isn’t participating in the protests, but the farmers who are, are actually misbehaving, destroying the food supply.”Nidhi talks about the story of a woman who died of starvation as she did not have a ration card. This story was underplayed in the mainstream media, Nidhi says, adding, “In January this year, another woman died due to under nutritional exhaustion and the fact-finding team then said that she was denied the ration since October last year. This was because the Aadhaar-enabled machine in the local ration shop failed to authenticate her biometric.”The panel also discusses Nidhi's report on Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) vehicle mowing down a young man during clashes after the Friday prayers in Srinagar. Cherry asks her, “Was there a sense of rage or fear among the locals when things started going out of hand?” Nidhi replies, “It was frenzy!” She says, “To just watch a man getting crushed under a vehicle like that is not fun.”Amit speaks about the tension brewing in Shillong, Meghalaya. Referring to an article by Scroll.in, Amit says, “These details were very important and somehow the national media ‘failed to report it’...until a delegation was sent by Captain Amarinder Singh, the Chief Minister of Punjab.” He adds, “It also shows...how alarming the situation is on the ground.”Our Campus Politik editor Sumedha talks about Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC). She says, “June 30th is the deadline for the National Register of Citizens. This is a news has only been covered in fragments over the months ever since the first list came in December.”She adds, “2.9 million women, who are trying to submit their documents so that they get themselves verified, are not able to do so.” She adds, “These women are also facing threat...and sexual harassment by local officials as well. There is a detailed investigation report that Al Jazeera covered. But I don’t see a lot of mention of this in the Indian media at least.”Cherry says that the follow-up to Cobrapost sting has been very weak in reference to the legal notices the website has been receiving. She also adds that Sudarshan TV also got a legal notice from Delhi Minorities Commission for allegedly airing a report where they referred to some locals from North Delhi's Bawana area as 'Rohingyas' and 'Bangladeshis'.Cherry says, “I went online to check the report...It was slightly disturbing to find both the anchor and the reporter agreeing and implying that the high crime rates in the area was because of the area being dominated by Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis.” All this was without actual evidence being cited. “You’re not giving any evidence! Have you done a population census!?” she asks.#Shillong violence #Kashmir #Violence in Bihar #Cobrapost Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.