Reporters Without Orders Ep 160: Lockdown fiasco, Delhi carnage documentary, and misleading ads

Reporters Without Orders

In this episode, host Basant Kumar is joined by Newslaundry’s Ayush Tiwari and BBC’s Jugal Purohit.

Commenting on how Narendra Modi arrived at the decision to impose a national lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic, Jugals refers to a recent report by BBC that tried to find an answer to this question. “Neither the National Disaster Management Authority nor the prime minister conducted and chaired meetings with any concerned departments before declaring lockdown. Additionally, there was no evidence found that specialist bodies and institutions were taken advice from before declaring lockdown,” BBC found. He also talks about the difficulties the news organisation faced in getting information under the RTI Act.

Talking about his recent report related to the Delhi carnage, Ayush shares that “a documentary, backed by a political party, cannot be accurate and unbiased". The documentary in conversation is Delhi Riots: A Tale of Burn and Blame, directed by Kamlesh K Mishra. BJP leader Kapil Mishra had publicised the documentary by tweeting the details of its screening. “The line of argument of the documentary is pro-government and pro-police, with no variety of opinion and dissenting opinion,” Ayush adds. The panel also talk about the misinformation regarding the carnage being spread on social media and news channels.

A recent TV Newsance episode about a misleading ad of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna published in Hindi and Bengali newspapers, was coordinated by Basant. “A local journalist had covered this story but it was not allowed to be published as the media house had some BJP influence. So they shared the details with me.” The panel also discuss the article by Newslaundry on the misleading ad.

This and a lot more as they talk about what made news, what didn’t, and what shouldn’t have.

Tune in!

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