Barkha Dutt launches fresh salvo against NDTV, asks if Radia helped channel
On Tuesday night last week, NDTV’s Managing Editor Sreenivasan Jain openly expressed his disappointment after a story, reported by Manas Pratap Singh and him, on the financial dealings of BJP chief Amit Shah’s son, was taken down. The story was a follow-up to the The Wire’s article alleging illegality in the business of Jay Shah following which Shah’s firm filed criminal and civil defamation cases against the news organisation’s editors and the freelance author. This revelation was followed with Barkha Dutt’s declaration that “axing” of stories at NDTV is not a new trend and certainly cannot be called an “aberration
Dutt, in her Twitter post said axing stories at NDTV is not at all a new phenomena and that while working there she had to fight over newswroom censorship on various occasions. “Yes, axing stories at NDTV not new. And I don’t recall said ex colleagues standing up for freedom of press & reporting when some of fought it (sic),” she wrote. Without taking Sreenivasan’s name, she said, “So when a former colleague calls this an ‘aberration’ surely that is a knowing falsehood.” She also listed instances when the channel either took down the stories she reported or when she was “given hell” for pursuing a story. “The said former colleague and some others who have lately tried to claim the mantle of free speech crusaders- are all aware of the many different times stories were taken down or simply disallowed at NDTV. All of these people were totally silent then or rationalized the management decisions. An interview Nitin Gokhale did with the outgoing Navy Chief was taken down. There were other guests we were instructed not to call on the channel but the management did not want to put this in writing lest the mail leak. I was disallowed from pursuing a story on what was called the Jayanti Tax controversy. I was given hell for a story I did on Robert Vadra…,” she said.
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