Independent journalist-driven initiatives: The Wire, NewsClick, NewsBits, Newsd, TwoCircles, The Citizen herald future of journalism in India

Independent media is necessary in India, as traditional media houses bow to political pressure and are unable to challenge the regimes.

For the businessmen who run these media houses, it is imperative to keep good relations with the governments and hence it is impossible to let their own newspapers or TV channel criticise the government and its policies non-stop.

The gap is thus being filled, as independent journalist-driven initiatives have come forward. These are The Wire, NewsClick, Newsbits.in, TwoCircles.Net, TheNewsMinute, NewsCentral, Newsd, The NewsMinute and Scroll among the most famous ones.

Most of these news sites are run by journalists. Hence, the focus is on news, stories and real issues. It is a good sign that the hold of businessmen and politicians is weakening on media. The websites that have Facebook pages and Twitter handles have huge reach.

The future is journalist-driven media in India. And that's a positive sign.

The Wire
NewsClick
NewsBits.in
TwoCircles.Net
NewsCentral
Newsd
TheCitizen.in
The NewsMinute

Demonetisation hits Media: Kolkata-based Media group ABP group, Telegraph fires 700 journalists

Telegraph, the Kolkata-based English daily is known for its unique headlines.

But on Friday, the newspaper made headlines--for the worst possible reason.

The paper owned by Ananda Bazar Patrika [ABP] group, sacked hundreds of journalists.

The news spread like wildfire among the journalist community in the country.

Print media is going through bad times in India. English papers have been closing their editions. Many papers have retrenched staff and several others are planning to give the pink slip to journos. Outlook report says that 700 employees were laid-off.

Demonetisation gave an opportunity to the media barons to justify their action--retrenching the staffers. Hindustan Times shut its Bhopal, Ranchi and Kolkata editions recently apart from closing many bureaux.

HT management's decision was weird because the paper was not in loss. But now another major newspaper going in for job cuts, sends a strong message. Other smaller groups may also follow suit.

This is bad for journalism as there will be fewer people on the ground to report. As profession, journalism was never lucrative, except for a few, but at least one could run household. Now even that is going to be difficult.

Clearly, bad times ahead for journalism and journalists. This will have affect on our democracy also, which remains strong if the press is strong. If the fourth estate is weakened, the voices of people won't reach others--the government and the citizens.

Hindustan Times shutting seven newspaper editions: Has Shobhana Bhartia totally lost the plot?

For Indian media, nothing could have been as bad as this news at the beginning of the New Year.

Lay-offs. India's leading English newspaper, Hindustan Times, has decided to close seven editions.

They include four editions and three small sub-editions in North India.

The decision is not only a big blow to journalism and journalists but also affects the media industry in the long run.

Kolkata, Bhopal, Indore, Ranchi are the editions that are being closed. Three other small editions including Kanpur and Allahabad are being shut.

Reports suggest that more editions could be closed soon. The decision will affect the prestige of the premier media organisation. In an era when journalists are finding it tough to get jobs and lay-offs are common, a media company that was in profit, is closing editions.

This will have a devastating effect on other smaller media groups. No one has clear idea as to why the editions, many of which were nearly 15-20 years old, are being shut suddenly.

This will also affect the image of Shobhana Bhartia, daughter of late KK Birla. She is the executive director of the Hindustan Times group. With hundreds of persons set to lose their jobs and established editions dying, it is nothing less than a taint. 

Shocking: Hindustan Times' Executive Editor Shishir Gupta is BJP chief Amit Shah's mole!

Shishir Gupta, the executive editor of Hindustan Times, was working as a mole for BJP!

The report suggesting Gupta being an informer to BJP president, created a stir in Indian media today.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, asking Shobhana Bhartia, HT's director, if she will sack him.

Gupta is the same journalist whose name had earlier come for his alleged links with an arms dealer.

Then, he was accused of calling the arms dealer, no less than 478 times on phone.

The latest controversy surrounds Gupta's role in providing information to Amit Shah, the BJP president.

Unlike journalists who pose questions or send query through email, here it was information that was sent, so that action could be planned. This was revealed after his email to Shah was obtained through RTI and is part of documents published by Frontline.

Online portal Wire mentions, "In it (email), Gupta draws the PMO and Shah’s attention to “violations” by the AAP government and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

"His email set off a series of counter-actions by the PMO over the following months which led, in turn, to an escalation of the turf war between Kejriwal and Najeeb Jung, who was lieutenant governor of Delhi at the time. Jung finally put in his papers on December 22, 2016....".

"Under the subject line “KEJRIWAL AGAINST CENTRE”, Gupta’s email began by noting: “Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal is on course to abrogate all powers of the Centre in NCR with neither the Home Ministry nor the BJP MLAs/Pradesh unit doing anything to contest it,” the Hindustan Times executive editor told Amit Shah and Officer on Special Duty (IT) in the PMO, Hiren Josh.

"The buzz in Delhi Govt is that BJP will do nothing to aggravate issues with Kejriwal due to its impact on forthcoming Bihar poll.” Nowhere in the email does the Hindustan Times executive editor ask a question or seek a response or clarification from Shah or Josh – the way reporters who correspond with officials about stories they are working on normally do."

Indian Express chief editor Raj Kamal Jha's journalism class to PM Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi got lessons in journalistic ethics and values at a function in Delhi.

The event was organised to give away the Ramnath Goenka awards for excellence in journalism.

After PM Modi's speech, Jha spoke at length about journalistic practices.

While audiences applauded Jha over his speech, PM Modi was cold and expressionless.

Jha recounted an incident--when a Chief Minister praised an Indian Express reporter's work, Goenka fired the journalist.

"Criticism from the government is a badge of honour for a journalist", he said.

Jha, in his vote of thanks said, "You (PM) also said a few wonderful things about journalists that makes us a little nervous....we have a generation of journalists who are growing up in an age of retweets and likes.."

The speech was applauded among journalists as Jha spoke with conviction. Just when NDTV has been banned for a day, Kashmir Reader has been shut down and journalists who question government are being branded 'anti-national', Jha's journalism class was needed.

Good work, Mr Jha.

Targeting Media: J-K government bans Kashmir reader, newspaper forced to stop publication

It's bad news for media. A newspaper has been forced to stop publication in the world's biggest democracy.

The management of the Kashmir Reader was asked to stop printing.

The administration issued an order, which forced the paper to shutdown its operations.

Worse, media is largely silent. Journalists across the country haven't stood in solidarity with the newspaper.

The newspaper has been banned. The decision has been unprecedented. But it has not lead to any outrage. There have been voices condemning the 'arbitrary decision' and demands have been raised to withdraw the ban.

However, most big media houses avoided to cover the story. The closure of a newspaper is not something that can be ignored. It's an emergency situation. The order came when situation in Kashmir had improved relatively.

Quint carried this piece, 'Is Ban on ‘Kashmir Reader’ Daily An Instance of State Repression?'. It quotes the editor Hilal Mir, who says, "The order is vague. It does not mention any article or content that they have found objectionable".

"If there is misrepresentation, specify it, take legal recourse instead of arbitrary methods", he further says. Media watchdog The Hoot has also carried a report, 'A quiet day at Kashmir Reader'. Unfortunately, other media houses ignored the news.

For them, it was not big news, perhaps. And herein lies the tragedy of our times.

Indian media's moment of shame: Times Now, News X bat to save Hindutva terrorists, give twist to Malegaon case

It started soon after the BJP came to power. Times Now, the leading English news channels, was quite harsh on establishment.

The channel's face, Arnab Goswami, took on Lalit Modi, but soon it became clear that strings had been pulled and Goswami was no longer shouting.

Lalit Modi case got a decent burial. India TV audience saw Arnab Goswami in a new avatar.

He was shouting but was no longer attacking the ruling party. This was a clear shift from the past when he attacked UPA regime. 

But that was just the beginning. Just like Congress, BJP also has its share of 'bad guys'. But Times Now was no longer raising issues that would show BJP leaders in poor light. The constant target was Congress, once again.

So, either it was Sohrabuddin case or Ishrat Jahan fake encounter, Arnab Goswami was now giving twist to each and every story, in such a way that he ended being on the side of the BJP, saving and 'exonerating' the BJP leaders, while defaming and denouncing others. 

While Hindi TV channels like Zee News, India TV and Aaj Tak were toeing the official line, Times Now and News X also joined the race.

It got so ugly that TV anchors were falling on the feet of the ruling party leaders to show how much subservient they are to the party. 

They never asked tough questions as to how Maya Kodnani who was sentenced to double life imprisonment for inciting mob to murder innocent women and children, was out of jail on parole in Gujarat.

They didn't question how Babu Bajrangi was suddenly out of jail too. But the worst was yet to come. Goswami's channel now goes all out batting for Hindutva extremists.

The right-wing Hindutva terror network had been busted by ATS under Hemant Karkare, the brave-heart officer who was killed in Mumbai terror attack.

The role of the then ATS officer KP Raghuvanshi was not up to the mark. In fact, he faced allegations of being slow in pursuing these cases.

But Times Now goes to the extent of giving legitimacy to Raghuvanshi, who was accused of botching up investigation in Malegaon and similar other cases. 

While blaming BJP or Congress is okay, it is sad to see how Goswami has become a mouthpiece for the RSS, and seems to be driven with a single agenda that is to help the Saffron terrorists' case in all these trials. 

This is possible by either creating confusion or spreading misinformation. Times Now is exactly doing this and this is criminal to say the least.

It is shameful to see India's leading English news channel spreading canards and doing disservice to the nation. 

Late Hemant Karkare had painstakingly bust the network and cracked the cases. The result was arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, Lt Col Srikant Purohit, Dayanand Pandey, Samir Kulkarni and many other members of the right-wing extremists' gang. 

But, TV channels like Times Now and News X are taking a line that is not just unethical but also shows how journalists have simply become tools to manipulate the opinion and tinker with cases, at the behest of the political masters. 

Unethical journalism: Praveen Swami's reports now sully Indian Express' image of fair journalistic practices

A sensational story about an 'Islamic state cell in MP' has brought back focus on Praveen Swami style of journalism--sensationalist, unconfirmed and questionable as it has nothing to do with real journalism and ethical journalistic practices.


The report "First Islamic state module busted, 5 held in MP', made claims but there was nothing to substantiate it. There were sweeping statements and wild sensational statements., based on 'highy placed police and intelligence sources'. 

Interesting, no police officer corroborated this version though police are generally eager to hold press conferences and claim success in such cases of busting 'terror cell or module'. The story had a joint byline Praveen Swami and Milind Ghatwai.

But there was no attempt to talk to MP police top brass or its ATS wing. Still, the newspaper then went ahead with the follow-up.

Local papers clearly mentioned that there was no confirmation that the arrested person had terror links but Express went miles ahead to issue judgment that it was a terror module.

Swami has been a controversial journalist and questions were raised on his journalistic practices when he used to work for the respectable The Hindu.

However, after questions were raised over how youth acquitted by courts, had been declared 'criminals' and terrorists, much before trial in similar sounding reports, his name got into disrepute.

Why he does it? Why the reporters on national security beat do it?

Apparently, the idea is to keep 'inventing enemies', keep focus on 'IM, IS' inks, demonise people, highlight minor criminals and term them as terrorists, and 'plant stories' with a purpose. 

Now, he is in Indian Express, and again the dubious practices have begun. Jamia Teachers' Solidarity Association (JTSA) responded to the 'Praveen Swami fictions'.

The response was published in letters to editor column of the same newspaper. Later, it was carried on JTSA and other places too.

So you can write anything you want based in your home, without even the need to verify, cross-check, without the version of cops or the complainants or even the accused!

WHAT CARAVAN WROTE ABOUT THE COMPROMISED NATIONAL SECURITY BEAT

The Caravan had this to say about Praveen Swami's reporting:

Swami’s critics find this intimacy seeping out in his writing. His reporting relies heavily on generic unnamed sources—“investigators believe”, “sources said”, “according to police”—and there’s a belligerence and one-size-fits-all Islamophobia to his analyses that seems of a piece with the security establishment’s dominant worldview. In Delhi’s media circles, there are several widely circulated rumours about Swami’s relationship to the IB. One claims that the agency did him a great favour early in his career, and that he remains indebted to it. Another says the IB has a dossier with which it is blackmailing him. - See more at: http://www.caravanmagazine.in/reportage/known-unknowns?page=0,2#sthash.LOQNEcXq.dpuf

Swami’s critics find this intimacy seeping out in his writing. His reporting relies heavily on generic unnamed sources—“investigators believe”, “sources said”, “according to police”—and there’s a belligerence and one-size-fits-all Islamophobia to his analyses that seems of a piece with the security establishment’s dominant worldview. In Delhi’s media circles, there are several widely circulated rumours about Swami’s relationship to the IB. One claims that the agency did him a great favour early in his career, and that he remains indebted to it. Another says the IB has a dossier with which it is blackmailing him.

Swami’s critics find this intimacy seeping out in his writing. His reporting relies heavily on generic unnamed sources—“investigators believe”, “sources said”, “according to police”—and there’s a belligerence and one-size-fits-all Islamophobia to his analyses that seems of a piece with the security establishment’s dominant worldview. In Delhi’s media circles, there are several widely circulated rumours about Swami’s relationship to the IB. One claims that the agency did him a great favour early in his career, and that he remains indebted to it. Another says the IB has a dossier with which it is blackmailing him. - See more at: http://www.caravanmagazine.in/reportage/known-unknowns?page=0,2#sthash.LOQNEcXq.dpuf

Swami’s critics find this intimacy seeping out in his writing. His reporting relies heavily on generic unnamed sources—“investigators believe”, “sources said”, “according to police”—and there’s a belligerence and one-size-fits-all Islamophobia to his analyses that seems of a piece with the security establishment’s dominant worldview. In Delhi’s media circles, there are several widely circulated rumours about Swami’s relationship to the IB. One claims that the agency did him a great favour early in his career, and that he remains indebted to it. Another says the IB has a dossier with which it is blackmailing him. - See more at: http://www.caravanmagazine.in/reportage/known-unknowns?page=0,2#sthash.LOQNEcXq.dpuf

Read the recent Praveen Swami report
Read JTSA rebuttal to Indian Express report
Read Caravan's report on Praveen Swami's journalism in CARAVAN

No facts but shout the loudest: Deepak Chaurasia makes a fool of himself once again

Aaj Tak's Deepak Chaurasia was enlightening all of us with his special comments the morning BJP leader Pramod Mahajan was shot.

Chaurasia revealed his 'closeness' with the family, like "I know his brother, sister, son, daughter....almost everybody....".

Then, he went on to describe his relations with the family for over a decade and categorically denied that there was any brother by the name Praveen.

It was shocking to see the journalist on one hand claiming that he knew Mahajan well and on the other hand, saying that he Mahajan had no brother.

'He seems to be a cousin of Pramod', said Chorasia. The Ajtak made a fool of itself as it banked upon Deepak for the special comments.

It was quite later that the channel retracted and corrected itself. Dipak...o....Dipak....the Laughter Challenge fame is only adding up to his 'reputation'.

"Money raised from sale of my shoes can run your channel", Shahrukh Khan tells TV channel's journalist

It was really bad to hear. A journalist was interviewing Shahrukh Khan on NDTV and was obsequiously asking questions.

For example a question was,. 'So you wear only branded shirts...', and then the next question posed was about the actor's grotesque shoes.

The superstar admitted that they were odd but special.

Shahrukh further said that these shoes were special because if he put them up for auction so much money could be raised that it would meet the expenses of running your (journalist's) channel for an entire year. 

Imagine, this was telecast on the channel. Why are these people mad about actors and treat everybody as a demigod. This happened sometime back, more than a month ago.

The other day a reporter got so excited with Dilip Kumar that the legendary actor had to say 'Aap itna chilla kyon rahi hain' (Why are you guys, shouting?)

Amir Khan blasts journos and media in Tehelka: Bollywood actor on journalism, role of journalists in India

Bollywood star Amir Khan's interview in Tehelka is being discussed because of his straightforward answers and strong criticism of the media.

The sight of Khan's men mistreating journalists at his marriage was still fresh in my mind and at first glance I though he was acting smart.

Though I believe journos should not try to intrude private parties without invitation. But then I read the interview today. He has raised serious questions.

I must amid that the interview is interesting, eye-opening and shows mirror to the TV channels and newspapers.

Media ought to be a watchdog not a lap dog, he says and cites glaring errors of newspapers.

Amir Khan charged Times of India with publishing wrong stories, HT with printing false news of his marriage twice, Channel 7 of airing his conversation without talking to him (it was someone else's voice, says Amir) etc etc.

The interview with Shoma Chaudhury is spread on three pages. Amir says that he reads just The Hindu, Indian Express and watches only DD for news.

On the investigative prowess of journalists who do stings like sex life of an actor, Amir has spoken a lot. Particularly, the shooting of militants soon after any terrorist attack.

"I realise that somehow authorities very conveniently find one or two people within hours or days of the attack (like Varanasi blasts) and kill them in shootout.What I want to know is why can't they do that before. Is it so easy to find a criminal?

If it is so easy why can't we nab them before the act? And in this, I want to comment on the role of media, where they conveniently take it on face value and say phalana dhimka from phalana dhimka group has in fact done this.

We know that somebody has been killed. We can see the dead body there, but we don't know who he is. No body knows who planted a bomb in the temple.

Today a temple, tomorrow it can be a mosque or market. The job of authorities is to find out those behind the act and the job of press is to investigate whether the authorities are telling the truth".

'Celebrities' invade media, manipulate public opinion: Will journalists become extinct?

I am seriously worried over the future of genuine journalists. This is because of the invasion of 'celebrities' and 'retired babus'.

The rate at which the retired IAS, IPS officers, self-styled socialites and celebrities, politicians, businessmen and even hoodlums are making it to the edit pages and studios, it seems journos will soon be out of business.

The articles of 'celebrities' like KPS Gill who was booked for allegedly groping a woman appear on edit pages along with their photos and sermonize the society.

Retired babus like Joginder Singh, 'politicians' Jaya Jaitley, Arun Nehru, 'socialite' Suhel Seth may come from different streams but have slowly graduated from op-ed to editorial page and regularly appear on these pages.

The people who ruined our system in the last 59 years have now replaced the academicians and scholars to become professional writers who can churn out 500-600 words on any topic.


It started with Sports when cricketers began writing columns and soon they eclipsed others. Now the situation is getting out of hand.

And their sons and daughters are also becoming journos with quite an ease.  In English journalism probably we wouldn't find middle-class journos or those from poor, humble background in future. 

So what will be the face of journalism five to ten years from now? Will it be all P-3 with little conviction or may be I am just being cynic and unnecessarily concerned.

You may even assume that I am jealous of the bureaucrats who easily get into TV studios and after failing to do anything positive for decades while in service, lecture us and become opinion makers.