Dirty journalism: How Aroon Purie's India Today group channel Aaj Tak propagates falsehoods, publishes fake stories

Once Aroon Purie's India Today group commanded respect.

Today it is reduced to spreading fake stories and propagating falsehoods.

Imagine, the level to which the journalistic standards of this group has fallen--Aaj Tak carries the false story about a Saudi mufti's purported fatwa that a man can eat  his wife or her body parts.

It was a satirical take in a magazine and when it was picked up by mainstream media's online sites, it was refuted.

The government and the mufti also came out and said that it was absolutely wrong.

In fact, even the India Today group's DailyO had long back published that it was a false report. LINK. Still, Aaj Tak carried it once again. Aajtak's website gets hits in millions.

Also, Aaj Tak has millions of followers on Facebook. That, a supposedly mainstream newspaper can go to such level just to garner 'hits', is shocking. It tells you about the situation of journalism and journalists in 21st century India.

Hope, Aroon Purie and his management realises that they have hired people who can't distinguish between rumours and news. That, people who don't understand the sanctity of the written word, need to be ousted from the profession.

Else, it is doomed. Once credibility is hit, it is very difficult to restore it. Time for Aaj Tak-India Today to take a decision. Aaj Tak should apologise and acknowledge that it made a mistake. That's the least it can do.

Can MJ Akbar revive India Today magazine?

Seasoned journalist MJ Akbar was recently made the Editorial Director of the India Today group with former head Prabhu Chawla shifted to the position of Editor (Language editions).

Chawla, who is considered close to BJP and the Sangh Parivar, had a long innings with India Today. In this period the taste of Indian reader also changed. While circulation of newspapers grew despite the channel boom, the magazines failed to retain their readership.

India Today's circulation has also gone down significantly. Under Chawla, India Today somehow acquired reputation of a pro-RSS magazine unlike the pro-Congress or secularist Outlook edited by the veteran Vinod Mehta.

With The Week going up in popularity in recent times and Tehelka also furthering its base, competition was hotting up. The arrival of Open, which is priced higher, put further pressure. The quality of content wasn't improving and there was no innovation.

It was in this backdrop that Akbar was chosen by Aroon Purie to head the prestigious magazine. Akbar, who has successfully established institutions and launched publications like The Telegraph (newspaper), Covert (magazine) and The Sunday Guardian (weekly newspaper).

Though Akbar is more harsh on Congress for the last few years, his aggression is not considered ideological because of the quality of his writings. He has contested election on Congress ticket in the past but doesn't seem to have a good rapport with the current regime.

However, journalists like Akbar are needed as they take on establishment and write critical pieces on the ruling party and government. Now a days few editors write aggressively and even fewer are critical of the establishment.

One hopes that Akbar would be able to give a new direction to India Today. The management also appears keen on shedding the pro-RSS or BJP-friendly tag on the magazine. Akbar will also head the Headlines Today channel.

It was a known thing among journalistic circles that till now state bureaus and reporters of India Today gave a subtle pro-BJP line to their reports to pitch them, as they felt this brightened the chances of their stories for proper space in the magazine's issues.

Whether it goes from Right-wing to Centrist-Leftist-Antiestablishment mode is yet to be seen. But Akbar is certainly expected to revamp the magazine, which needs a change to survive and maintain its identity as the prime news weekly of the country.

India Today circulation goes down, TOI readership dips

The circulation of magazines has been hit badly this year. The trend is not restricted to any particular section of magazines, rather magazines focusing on news, fashion, movies, gossip and even competitive examinations have seen a decline in readership.

As per the report of the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) the readership of India Today fell from 71.3 lakh (in the last survey) to 68.5 lakh. Readers Digest was hit even badly and its readership is down from 49 lakh to 40 lakh, while Star Dust is down from 26 lakh to 19 lakh.

Among English newspapes, Times of India saw a decline in readership though it was barely a lakh. Still, it is significant. TOI now has a readership of 133 lakh, far ahead of nearest rival Hindustan Times (HT) that surprisingly added more than 3 lakh readers but is still far behind HT with a readership of 64 lakh. The Hindu remains static at 52 lakh followed by Telegraph at 29 lakh.

The magazines in Hindi, Bengali and other languages have also suffered. However, major newspapers have seen a growth in readership. Jagran remains the leading daily in Hindi followed by Bhaskar though the latter added more readers. The readership: Jagran [557 lakh], Dainik Bhaskar [338 lakh], Amar Ujala [293 lakh] and Hindustan [266 lakh] followed by others.