PERSECUTED: Veteran anchor Rajdeep Sardesai, who had started his own channel CNN 18 has been charged with sedition for reporting that the farmer who died in the tractor rally was shot by the police. When the Delhi police presented a video showing that it was an accident and there were no bullet injuries on the body, he corrected himself. Rajdeep is a Niz goenkar who is the son of the late national cricketer, Dilip Sardessai. ‘India Today’ was pressurized into suspending him for 15 days for allegedly reporting fake news.
By Rajan Narayan
Both the print media and electronic media are being harassed by the Modi government. Several senior journalists and anchors have been sacked under pressure from the Modi government. Those who refuse to co-operate are denied advertisment by the large advertisers. Making it impossible for them to bring out their print editions…
On 26 January, Republic Day, during the tractor rally one of the reports was that the farmer driver had been shot. Which is why he lost control and met with a fatal accident. When the police released a video showing that the tractor driver had died because he had been over speeding and his tractor over turned, Rajdeep Sardesai, corrected himself. Despite this a case has been filed against one of the country’s most honest anchors for sedition among several offenses. Sedition for those who may not be familiar with the word is defined as over throwing the elected government. The other cases filed against Rajdeep who is the son of the soil of Goa is promoting enmities between commodities. The only other community in this case was the Modi government. The India Today television channel has suspended Rajdeep Sardesai for 15 days on the charge of filing the fake report.
The government is either not aware of how the media works or pretends not to. In cases like the tractor rally of the farmers on Republic Day the situation is very tense. The reporters in the field find stories depending on the latest developments. When the farmers claimed that the tractor driver had died because he was shot by the police, Rajdeep reported it. Subsequently when the police produce a video of the speeding tractor driver whose vehicle was over turned when it hit the barricade, Rajdeep corrected himself and attributed the death to an accident. Indeed there is so much confusion the violent turned that the farmers agitation took on Republic Day no one knows what actually happened. A small time filmstar Deep Sidhu is alleged to have instigated a young man who had just returned from Cannada to hoist the Sikh flag. Unlike the WhatsApp rumours which have been deliberately damaged no damage was dump to the National Flag fluttering alongside. Even in Goa there are fake facebook post claiming that the farmers insulted the National Flag.
Not just Rajdeep Sardesai, but several senior journalist an anchors of the Anand Bazar patrika have had cases filed against them. There has been pressure from the Central government on the managements to sack this senior honest journalist. One of their senior anchors claims that the press advisor of Narendra Modi Nripendra Misra calls up owners and editors of newspapers to tell them that the government is not happy with their report. In deed the government is not happy with any reports against the Modi government.
A few months ago among the best anchors in the country who was the phase of the TOI TV channel Mumbai Mirror was Faye D’Souza was abruptly sacked. She was considered the best anchor in the country. Apparently the commerce minister Piyush Goyal did not like something that she had said against the commerce policy. He is reported to have spoken to Vineet Jain Managing Director of Time of India and Faye was promptly sacked.
All over the country senior journalist and anchors have been sacked because they have incurred the anger of the Modi government. Several publications have been compelled to close down such as the entire Mirror chain of papers brought out by the Times of India. Among the major causalities in the English media is the DNA. Many major newspapers in the country have had to close down not only because of the covid but because the government has stopped giving them advertisements. The big advertisers like the adanis and the ambanis dance to the tune of the government. Without cash flow newspapers and magazines are not able to pay salaries. Because of Covid-19 all the staff cannot be accommodated in the existing premises and are told to work from home. This includes local papers like TOI and the Herald. In the case of Heraldo one of the senior sports editor has been ask to come to work only once in three days. Correspondingly there has been a major cut in the salaries of the journalist working for the print media and the anchors working for the electronic media.
Many newspapers and magazines have gone digital. The senior journalist who have been sacked on the insistence of the Modi government including veteran Shekar Kapur, Siddharth Varadarajan was formerly editor of Hindu and Faye D’Souza have started their own online papers and video channels. Which is what we have forced to do in the case of the Goan Observer.
Since neither the government nor private organisations who advertise pay their dues for long periods of time there is a severe cash flow crises. Unfortunately the printer will not publish the printer unless you pay him promptly when the bill is submitted. The staff has to be paid salaries as in many cases their families depend on them. The BSNL will cut off the internet connection if they are not paid promptly. Similar is the case with the electricity department. The major problem is going online is that many of the senior journalist including me know nothing about bringing out online editions. Having been an editor from the age of 26 of a magazine called Mirror I have also had an luxury of having a secretary.
I never learnt typing since I could dictate my stories to the secretaries. Senior print journalist do not know how to monetize their online edition. We struggled even to find out how to provide our advertisers google analytics data good Samaritans came to our rescue. This is happening not just in India but all over the world.
The biggest papers in the US like the New York Times and the Wallstreet Journal have gone digital. Similar is the case with papers like the London Times and the guardian. If you are looking for genuine objective news you will find them only in the online versions of the former print publications. We cannot trust either the print media or the electronic media as you can only survive if you are chamchas of the ruling BJP government in the centre. I do not know whether a sedition charge will be brought against me for referring to BJP chamchas.