Reporters Without Orders

Amit is back from Kairana to join Cherry in the latest episode of Reporters Without Orders. Rohin and Nidhi join us over the phone. We also have our Campus Politik editor Sumedha joining the panel.The podcast begins with Nidhi talking about her recent interview with a Kashmiri mother. She says, “As much as they want to believe in Azadi -- they do believe in Azadi as a collective sentiment -- but a lot of them might not host militants anymore.” Nidhi also shares the challenges she faced while pursuing and articulating this story.Furthermore, Nidhi speaks about Gurez valley, a village in Kashmir where the Kishanganga Hydro Electric project is located. She says, “There is no electricity in most parts. The main town has about four hours of electricity every day.” She says that despite the absence of basic amenities, the society seems fairly self-sufficient. There are new aspirations among local youth when they see outsiders, she adds.Rohin speaks about the upcoming farmers' protests which have been under-reported. He says, “From June 1 - June 10, a big movement of farmers is going to begin across 15-16 states. Named as ‘Gaon bandhi’, the farmers will neither send supplies to cities nor visit them.”Sumedha talks about the protests against land acquisition in Bhavnagar in Gujarat. She says, “It is about lignite mining that is going to happen in Bhavnagar. This land was basically acquired from farmers without due compensation.” She adds, “So there’s this long-standing struggle which is almost reaching a saturation point.”“I really hope that we don’t see a situation like Tamil Nadu where it brews into a violent agitation and it is only then that we hear about it," she says.Rohin mentions the apology letter written by Kumar Vishwas to Arun Jaitley that was talked about a lot on digital portals. Rohin says, “Kumar Vishwas hasn’t literally apologised but he has put all the blame on Kejriwal by stating that he was only following his leader’s footsteps. So whenever Kejriwal made comments, he simply followed him.”Amit says that the language used in the letter also seems demeaning. He says, “Words like kursi ke pissu, thook ke chaatna…is the kind of language that is expected from Kapil Mishra. Despite being an eminent writer, Kumar Vishwas has used such language which has surprised me.”Speaking of the letter, Amit adds, “That’s the easiest way to get out of this mess which he (Kumar Vishwas) was left in.”Amit talks about the recent encounter that happened in Jharkhand in which three naxals belonging to Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC) were gunned down. He says, “Google three words: Naxal, encounter, Jharkhand...and what you will find is shocking as every month multiple encounters are happening in the state.” Amit explains a brief history of Tritiya Prastuti Committee.A state that was apparently neutralised in operations conducted by security forces two years back, he says, “In a way, the situation was under control and suddenly there is a rise in the number of encounters.”Rohin says that the Patthalgadi movement is being talked about in Ranchi. He adds, “There are rumours that two or three active members of the movement have gone missing. The issue has not gained the desired momentum.”Sumedha talks about the NL Campus Politik story on LGBT petition filed by students of IIT. She says, “Throughout the fight to decriminalise Section 377, over the last two decades we’ve seen that only very prominent, financially affluent figures have had the courage to come out and approach the court.” She adds, “I think it was extremely brave of these young people to come out and talk about this and to take the fight to the Court.”Cherry says that despite the doubts about the veracity of Cobrapost's sting, the entire episode has been underplayed.#Kashmir #Times Now #Tejpal tapes #Jharkhand encounters Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's Reporters Without Orders, Cherry is joined by Rohin and Amit, the latter has just returned from Karnataka. Also, on the panel is NDTV's Shruti Menon.The podcast kicks off with some good news. A Newslaundry report on the Cauvery dispute authored by TR Vivek has won Mumbai Press Club's prestigious RedInk Award in the Environment category.The discussion begins with Cherry questioning media’s obsession with Karnataka elections. She asks, “Not all state elections get as much attention. What do you think was different this time?”Shruti answers, “What was different this time was the way the elections panned out. It demanded the kind of attention and coverage it was given.”Nevertheless, Shruti points out that various news events got overshadowed by the election coverage. She says, “One of them, of course, was the Varanasi flyover collapse.”“It did not get wall-to-wall coverage. One of the reasons for that was it happened on the day of the counting.” Explaining the lapse, Shruti says, “Even after the counting day was over, there were no follow-ups for what happened in Varanasi.”Amit disagrees with the argument that some of the state elections don’t get as much attention. He says, “Every election post-2014 has gotten an equal amount of coverage in news media.” BJP's electoral juggernaut is one of the reasons behind this, he says. “It’s also because of the kind of electoral juggernaut that BJP is running in the country," Amit says in reference to media's post-2014 election coverage.Adding to the discussion, Rohin points out the manner in which Uttar Pradesh's 2017 civil polls was covered by media. He says, “It was being shown to the audience in Delhi. It’s importance was projected to such an extent as if the elections were being held at a national level.” He adds, “And TV news journalists were making the analysis of its probable effects on the 2019 (general) elections.”Amit and Shruti recall their experience of dealing with ‘planted stories’ while they were on the ground covering Karnataka elections. Shruti says, “It’s very easy to fall for a plant because it is very alluring.” She adds, “As a reporter what you need do is to constantly try and check whether the kind of information you’re getting is credible or not.”Amit says that it is also about how long the reporter can hold out. “It’s also about at what point of time you fall for it or at what point of time you can hold your nerve.”Rohin talks about the dramatic increase in fuel prices -- a news piece that has received less coverage. Rohin gives a thorough breakdown of petrol's MRP if it’s brought under the GST tax slab. Doing so could reduce petrol's MRP substantially, he adds. Rohin also points out multiple reasons why rising fuel prices call for a serious discussion.Amit speaks about the march of Aam Aadmi Party leaders to LG’s office over CCTV project fiasco which found no space in national media. Amit says, “On a regular news day when you don’t have elections, I think this is the news for the entire country!” He adds, “Aam Aadmi Party is the best selling material.”Cherry mentions two news stories that found limited mention in the mainstream media. This includes the layoff of 34 people at ABP Ltd, reported in a brief by The Hoot. She also highlights the dissonance in media coverage between United States’ embassy shift from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the protests by Palestinians during which nearly 60 people were killed when Israeli forces opened fire at them.Shruti speaks about another international story that did not receive any coverage -- ‘The Royal Wedding’. Shruti says, “Mainstream media could not pick it up because it was the exact moment when Yeddyurappa resigned.”#Varanasi #Karnataka #Media coverage #Palestine #Israel Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We have a full in-house panel for this episode of Reporters Without Orders. Apart from Rohin and Cherry, we have Nidhi joining us from Kashmir and Amit reporting from Bangalore.Amit, who is camped outside the Raj Bhavan, is giving the panel latest updates on the Karnataka verdict. Oh! he also has a warning for the listeners.Speaking to the panel, Amit says that the BJP was looking at forming the government until the afternoon, however, soon after, the prospects began to diminish. While the Governor has agreed to meet the Congress and JD(S) leaders between 5:30 and 6:00 in the evening, “as per the convention, the Governor should ideally give a chance to Yeddyurappa as the BJP is the single largest party", Amit tells the panel.Amit also shares that the JD(S) supporters were wearing t-shirts with 'E Sala Cup Namde' which means, “this time the cup is ours”. Amit says, “This was their very famous and successful social media campaign where they claimed that this time Vidhana Soudha (Sabha) trophy is ours.” When Cherry asks Amit if JD(S) would play the kingmaker’s role, Amit responds, “It is not playing the kingmaker’s role but it is the king right now!”Nidhi also chips in on the Karnataka conundrum and how Kerala Tourism saw an opportunity in all this. On May 15, amidst the thrill of minute-to-minute political/electoral updates, Kerala Tourism tweeted out an invitation "to all MLAs to unwind at the safe and beautiful resorts of God's own country." Speaking of which, Nidhi tells that panel that the tweet also pointed to a strategy practised by parties to prevent horse-trading of leaders elected to the Legislative Assembly.Nidhi tells the panel that a news piece that was under-reported was the arrests made in the case of the murder of a 15-year-old girl in Ghaziabad that happened in December 2017. The Crime Branch of Ghaziabad police has arrested five people, including the father-son duo, who hatched the plot to kill the girl. Sharing the details of the case, Nidhi adds, “To ensure that she was dead, they drove over her body and then eventually dumped her in a field!”Nidhi says that since then the DSP in-charge of the case has been transferred, the police station in-charge has been suspended for neglecting his duties. Despite this, the news did not find enough space, apparently, because it does not involve any political leader.Rohin speaks about the murder of Bhim Army’s leader’s brother, Sachin Walia, which took place in Saharanpur. He points out that Walia was shot on the day when preparations for Maharana Pratap's Jayanti were being made. He also finds various inconsistencies in the police investigation that indicate that the police had foreknowledge of the mishappening. Rohin says, “It’s interesting that the deceased receives a phone call from the Saharanpur SSP on the day of his death who asks him if he’s going to contest elections. And then they talk about the Maharana Pratap rally, a day celebrated by the Rajputs.” Rohin adds that the SSP makes a strange, grave statement, “Kisiko bhi ragadne ka yahi waqt hota hai (It’s an opportune moment to eliminate anyone.)"Rohin emphasises that such an event can have consequences as elections are near. Even the BSP is aware and apprehensive of the Bhim Army. He adds that this is an important political development with serious implications as Bhim Army led by Chandrashekhar is a big force in the state politics.Cherry speaks about media's recent coverage. She says that the Karnataka elections overshadowed a lot of news pieces, including the namaz row in Haryana.Rohin also speaks about four high-profile weddings and the confusion created by Dainik Jagran's reportage. All this and more in this episode of Reporters Without Orders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this podcast of Reporters Without Orders, The Caravan's Nikita Saxena joins the panel to discuss her recent articles on special CBI judge Loya's death. The panel also discusses Member of Parliament Rajeev Chandrasekhar-owned Asianet News and the change in its 'posturing' over time.Amit Bhardwaj, who is currently in Karnataka covering the upcoming state elections, joins the panel over the phone to talk about RSS' Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, who is a key player in BJP's Karnataka election campaign. You can read Amit's detailed story on Bhat here.Amit also makes an observation about the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's (RSS) role in Karnataka. He says, RSS is furiously campaigning for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), something unlike before. He adds that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign rally in Karnataka can severely impact Congress’ vote share despite the governing party's edge in the state.Rohin asks Amit if the remarks, circulating on social media, made by Prakash Raj, a popular, South Indian film actor, will have an effect on the voters’ choice. According to Amit, Prakash Raj has been able to galvanise only anti-BJP vote bank. He says, “Prakash Raj’s comments may reinforce the beliefs of an anti-BJP voter but will not affect neutral and BJP voter”.Cherry asks our guest panellist Nikita about the challenges she faced while following-up on judge Loya's death. Nikita explains how she investigated the case and gives a detailed breakdown of the events that lead to revelations indicating a foul play in the case. She says, "Here a judge has died. And he was staying at the guest house at that time, as we are told. And none of them find out, that’s very strange, none of them seemed to know what had happened with his belongings for example…” She adds, “Why the reception was not called?!...Why it was thought that it was a better idea to wait for two judges to come to the guest house and then take him to the hospital which I assume is going to lead to a lot of loss in time is something that was not clear at all.”To that, Rohin adds that a recent viral image which showed an auto rickshaw with “who killed Loya?” written on it, is a positive sign in the view of public perception. It suggests that the important, controversial issue had seeped into the otherwise obscure segment of the audience, especially the ‘hindi belt’, he says.Rohin talks about the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) controversy where installation of a photograph of Muhammad Ali Jinnah has sparked a row. Apparently, the photograph has been hanging there since 1938. Rohin also points out that several facts have been left out by the media while reporting on the issue. He adds that the matter of the ‘security breach’ of former Vice President Hamid Ali Ansari, who was present on the campus when the protesters created a ruckus, found less space in the media.Rohin also talks about the VK Dikshit committee report on the Banaras Hindu University controversy that happened in September 2017. “The BHU chief proctor said to the media that the protesters were sponsored in exchange for pizza and pepsi," says Rohin.Nikita examines the editorial stance of Asianet News. She speaks about the changes in the channel since Rajeev Chandrasekhar took over. Asked if the channel has been able to change its 'anti-RSS- stance, she says, "The opinion seemed a little divided but it seemed to me that it had been fractured enough for people to start having some misgivings.”Citing a previous Newslaundry report, Cherry adds, "Their new website that’s coming up will be positioned as a Centre-right news property and it will counter the left narrative."#Loya #AMU-Jinnah controversy #Karnataka Elections Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this podcast of Reporters Without Orders, we have a guest joining the panel. A reporter from Catch News, Priyata Brajabasi, joins the team to discuss recent remarks made by BJP leaders, fake news conviction in Malaysia, 2018 World Press Freedom Index and more.Cherry discusses the comments made by Biplab Deb, chief minister of Tripura, who was recently summoned by Modi for making controversial remarks. She also talks about the comments made by Kavinder Gupta, Jammu and Kashmir's deputy chief minister, who called the Kathua rape a “minor” accident. The media coverage given to insensitive and unsubstantiated remarks made by political leaders shouldn't be aired as much, she says. "While it is important to call them out, the media should abstain from giving them so much attention," Cherry adds.Priyata and Abhinandan agree that the media does serve as a platform for such leaders to draw the limelight, but Abhinandan adds: "I also understand the importance of a chief minister or deputy chief minister, their utterances kind of suggest or convey how their administrations will move or treat certain issues of governance."Furthermore, Cherry adds that it's a journalist's job to give context and background of a story. She points out that the 'fake news' conviction in Malaysia should have got more coverage. On April 30, a Malaysian court convicted a Danish citizen for inaccurate criticism of the police. The 46-year-old was the first person to be prosecuted under Malaysia's recent 'fake news' law.“In India, we are talking about internet regulations, so if these regulations are going to be used to crack the whip on people who criticise the police then it's problematic," says Cherry.Talking about Biplab’s comments, Rohin points out that, according to a source, whatever Biplab is saying is being told to him. "I don't think we should be shocked because when Modi, at a science conference, said Ganesh's trunk was a result of cosmetic surgery, then we shouldn't take ‘internet in Mahabharata times’ seriously," he says.Regarding media coverage, Rohin feels that Tripura is getting coverage because of Biplab’s comments. “Otherwise there is hardly any ground reporting of Tripura in mainstream media,” he adds.Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released the 2018 World Press Freedom Index with India slipping to the 138th position. As per RSF’s observation, Rohin reads: “Ever since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in 2014, Hindu fundamentalists have been referring to journalists in extremely violent terms. Any investigative reporting that annoys the ruling party or any criticism of Hindutva elicits a torrent of online insults and calls for the death of the reporter or writer responsible, most of it coming from the prime minister’s troll army.”Referring to the murder case of Ankit Saxena, who was in love with a Muslim girl, Rohin points out a new development that should have got media coverage - his parents are collaborating with an NGO to promote inter-religion and inter-caste marriages.The panel then deliberates on the Tamil Nadu governor touching a journalist’s cheek. "I think it does talk about how women journalists are seen,” says Priyata.Abhinandan further discusses the difference that he noticed in recent debates on TV channels. “There was an absence of Hindu-Muslim India-Pakistan kind of thing. I am wondering if this has anything to do with the Karnataka elections,” he asks.Rohin tells the panel that such issues are still being talked about on Hindi TV channels. “People are saying the Kathua case is being talked about because a Muslim girl is involved but nobody talks about the Ghaziabad case because a maulvi and a Hindu girl are involved,” he says.All this and more on this week’s podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this podcast of Reporters Without Orders, we have Ramnath Goenka award-winner Rahul Kotiyal joining the panel. Currently a freelancer, he has earlier been with Scroll.in's Hindi website Satyagraha and Tehelka. The panel discusses the issues of death penalty, the Dainik Jagran article on Kathua rape, Judge Loya verdict and more.Rahul describes the story that won him the Ramnath Goenka award for Hindi reporting under the print category. “It was a two-part series on organisations in north India that are running an anti-jihad campaign called Beti Bachao, Bahu Lao. This campaign stops girls from having an inter-caste marriage. I reported this from Dehradun,” he says.Nidhi Suresh, our in-house reporter on the ground in Kashmir, elaborates on her story about a 16-year-old minor girl from Kulgam who went missing and the chargesheet was filed a few days ago. Disappointed by the preliminary chargesheet, she says, “The girl said she was drugged. To establish that, they should have conducted a medical examination. It has to be done within 24 hours.”Abhinandan feels that the whole excitement about the death penalty for child rapists is “such a dumb celebration by dumb people for dumb policy and intervention by dumb policymakers.”Amit adds that the incidents that were in the news last week deserved to be covered. They include the sacking of Atishi Marlena, Judge Loya verdict and the impeachment process. On the other hand, “Swati Maliwal’s indefinite hunger strike was not covered by the mainstream media,” he says.On the issue of death penalty, Rahul points out that the media didn't take it the way it should have been taken. It took it as a welcome step. “It was brought in as an ordinance but an ordinance should come in emergency situations; this will bring a regressive change in our legal system.”Furthermore, he discusses that the Dainik Jagran front page article was a culmination of baseless allegations. The article claimed that the Kathua rape never happened. No evidence substantiated the claim. “They claim there were two post-mortem reports but they haven’t presented the reports anywhere. The major and only difference they found is that one had seven injuries and the other one six injuries.”Nidhi calls this as “reflective of our lack of understanding of rape.”The Loya case, Abhinandan believes, deserved more coverage. He points out that the reporting wasn’t dissecting the judgment page-by-page. “On one hand in the same order, they said a judge cannot lie. On the other hand in the same report, there is another judge who says the ECG machine was not working, so he was mistaken.”In the case of death penalty, Rohin argues that when the state cannot give life, how can it take life away? “Nobody is a rapist by birth. Social conditioning contributes to it largely. Even if you give death penalty to the rapist, whom will you blame for social conditioning?” he questions.He further points out that in remote areas, organisations such as Newslaundry, Boom Live, Alt News find it difficult to reach the masses. Hence, publications such as Dainik Jagran circulated a narrative in those areas. Now they feel people are unnecessarily blaming Modi in the Kathua case.While working on the Kulgam case, Nidhi shares that she was disappointed to see that there is interest in the case as long as there is a politician involved. “Let’s face it, Kathua caught fire only because two BJP leaders were involved.”Abhinandan adds: “From the news point of view, there are certain mechanisms that are outcomes of civilisation, governance, democracy, bureaucracy. When that process becomes a perpetrator of the crime, from a macro point of view, it is a failure of the system as opposed to a crime which like Anand Vardhan once said is ‘the banality of crime’.”All this and more on this week’s podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this podcast of Reporters Without Orders, we have a surprise guest joining the panel. A reporter from The Quint, Meghnad Bose, joins the panel to discuss the Kathua rape case, fire at a Rohingya refugee camp, Rahul Gandhi’s midnight march and more.Meghnad tells us about the story that he broke on CBSE class 12 exams wherein the marks were being unfairly moderated. “A data scientist had observed a very odd marking pattern that an unbelievably high number of students in CBSE were getting the number 95." The numbers like 91, 92, 93 and 94 were obtained by 60-70k people and 195k people got the number 95. We realised that CBSE adopts a moronic system, Meghnad tells the panel.Cherry talks about an article published by The Sunday Guardian, authored by Sushil Pandit. She says that the article should not have been published. “The editor is still defending the piece stating that it is the reporter’s right to write fiction and once you have given a disclaimer [that the story is a concotion] it's okay." But what the piece is doing, in reality, is using actual facts, actual events of an eight-year-old Kathua girl’s rape and murder to delegitimise an entire sequence of events, Cherry says.Abhinandan adds, “Some people are saying it's a satire. I don't see the satirical bit in it.”Cherry also spoke about that the fire at the Rohingya refugee camp where 50 shanties were burnt down. She says while it was reported upon, it did not get wall-to-wall coverage.Rohin, who covered this incident says, “People couldn't decide whether somebody started the fire or it happened on its own. As per the police, it could have been due to a short circuit but people are saying they don't have such wires that could lead to a short-circuit. Their Burmese IDs and refugee cards from the UN were burnt down, technically they are illegal now.”Talking about propaganda related to the Kathua case, Rohin says that it is very insensitive of people to raise questions like -- how come the girl was wearing the same clothes in pictures released before and after the death? Did she have only one set of clothes?Meghnad feels that despite Kathua and Unnao cases receiving wall-to-wall coverage, the questions related to political leadership have not been asked.He tells the panel more about a documentary that he made on rape culture in Haryana. He wanted to investigate why so many rapes happen. “Societal attitudes are so intensely patriarchal that it creates conditions where sexual assault against women is normalised, legitimised and justified.”He feels that the electoral bonds that were told to be anonymous by the government did not get enough coverage. “You have gone to the extent of putting numbers there but people can't see on the face of it. I am surprised that no one picked it up.”The panel discusses the midnight march by Congress President Rahul Gandhi. Amit calls it a “spontaneous” decision because around 9 pm, Rahul Gandhi tweeted that he will take out a march at the India Gate. Amit spoke to some members of the Congress party, who told him that they were informed about the march in the afternoon. He goes on to say that various TV channels and news portals covered it, but there was no reportage in the newspapers.Cherry says that the crime should be talked about and not just the protest. “I don't think it is right to use a protest which is now turning into a brand to peddle your own agenda even if subtle. It is absolutely necessary to talk about that heinous crime that was perpetrated when we talk about rape."To which Abhinandan adds, “There are certain tipping points and that tipping point is usually an incident or a specific event. "It's like the biggest problem that we had with the British was imposing a tax on salt but you can use that as a hinge to set off a bigger protest.”To read more visit: bit.ly/2qIvoao Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this podcast of Reporters Without Orders, the panel is joined by Ishan Kukreti, a reporter from Down to Earth magazine, to discuss the Kathua rape case, Kashmir killings, Salman Khan’s conviction and more.Nidhi comments on how the mainstream media did not have any coverage on the lawyers’ protest in the Kathua case, "When the charge sheet was filed by the crime branch, the lawyers protested against the same. There was no front-page coverage in the mainstream media. Only Times of India reported it on the front page, everybody else carried it in the inside pages."She also puts forth the fact that 3 killings in the last 7 months in the Kashmir valley have gone under-reported. She finds it “bizarre” that they have only reported the incidents and there have been no follow-ups and investigations.Ishaan discusses the farmers protesting against the Cauvery issue outside an IPL match between CSK-KKR and media's doing "lazy reporting as it is giving attention to IPL through the Cauvery issue”.Cherry also adds on to the Kathua rape case and feels that it deserved more coverage. “Considering the coverage that Salman Khan got wherein at least 9 leading dailies put it on their front page, how does a girl's repeated rape for at least a week does not get a front-page coverage except one column in TOI?” she questions.Manisha states that the probable reason for less coverage could be the 8-year-old victim’s disadvantaged background. “I guess this is also to do with the fact that the girl is from the Bakarwal community. If it happens to a middle-class family and an upper-middle-class person, there is media outrage.”While Nidhi feels Salman Khan’s conviction was all over the media, Cherry discusses excessive coverage given to Congress’ 'chola bathura' breakfast.In the Salman Khan case, Nidhi points out that there was no Bishnoi community representative in the prime-time debate panels. To which Manisha adds, “As per a news report, two Bishnoi members came to stop Salman and he pointed his gun at them. Even under so much pressure, the Bishnoi members haven’t changed their testimony in 20 years. There should have been news of their struggle to get justice and not just Bandra people saying Salman is so great.”In relation to the non-filing of FIR against the SC/ST Atrocities Act (2015 amendment), Ishaan talks about how smartly mass land encroachment is happening in areas such as Raigarh.The panel also discusses, I&B ministry's April 4 order to set up a panel to frame regulations for online media. "Even if I want to express my opinion in a Facebook post or on Twitter, there are chances that the government might crack its whip it,” Cherry tells the panel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Reporters Without Borders, the team engages in a conversation about the I&B ministry's order to regulate fake news as well as media reportage on the nationwide Dalit protest.While discussing Uttar Pradesh government's decision to officially include 'Ramji' in documents mentioning BR Ambedkar, Rohin points out the importance of adding historical context to debates. "Ambedkar's critique on Ram and casteism would actually scare the Hindutva forces," he tells the panel.Amit talks about media’s demographic bias, and how newsrooms highlight issues from certain states only. "Jharkand's government has drafted an amendment saving officers accused in the forgery of land sale and conversions...had there been a similar draft in Uttar Pradesh, it would have been covered by national media," he states.Discussions on Dalit agitation has Abhinandan questioning media's sympathetic coverage of the protesters, despite compelling evidence of violence. "Dalit protests are usually not covered by TV channels or newspapers. It was the narrative of this protest that led to such mass coverage," says Amit.Rohin points out how the protests have deepened class differences and talks about Savarna reporters looking at the protest with a biased lens.Cherry shares why I&B ministry’s amendment to journalists’ accreditation guidelines was problematic. The amendment threatens to take away a journalist's accreditation even before the journalist’s guilt is established, she says. She also speaks about the responsibility of verification being given to self-regulatory bodies. “The PCA and NBA have proved to be ineffective in the past...are we really expecting them to look into these cases in fifteen days and tell whether they are fake news or not ?" she asks. She also points out that the guidelines do little to curb the menace created by social media websites, which have widely contributed to the spread of fake news.Abhinandan tells us why Mayawati becoming a chief minister at her time was a bigger deal than Barack Obama, an African-American, becoming the President of the United States. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Reporters Without Orders is early this week! And on this podcast, the panel gives you a lowdown on what made news and what should have. Abhinandan and Cherry talk about Big Media giving a miss to Cobrapost's exposé, while Cherry also speaks about media's coverage of Ovleno Business Intelligence's role in the Indian electoral process. Was the company put on a media trial? Rohin talks about Poonya Prasoon Vajpayee's speech at the Constitution Club and the JNU protests that took place last week. Amit talks about convictions in the Ramgarh lynching case and the limited coverage it received in Big Media. He also speaks about the attack on journalists from Hindustan Times and The Indian Express as well as Cobrapost's documentary. But that's not all. The panel also discusses glorification of Shambhulal Regar at a Ram Navami rally. Regar allegedly murdered a labourer from West Bengal. So, Listen up!#CambridgeAnalytica #Cobrapost Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.