Reporters Without Orders

This week the host Basant is joined by Newslaundry’s Prateek Goyal and Newsreel Asia’s Tej Bahadur Singh. The discussion begins with Bihar’s Mushar community and Tej explains the narrative of his video report. Prateek elaborates on how Madhya Pradesh is the epitome of Hindutva where the Home Minister himself protests and criticizes any new film release. Basant also talks about a video that went vi...

This week, host Akanksha Kumar is joined by Newslaundry ’s Tanishka Sodhi and Basant Kumar. The discussion begins with Tanishka and Basant’s experience at Jantar Mantar as they covered protests against the Wrestling Federation of India and its President, Brij Bhushan Singh. The protests stemmed from allegations of sexual harassment and corruption within the WFI. As they discuss their report on WFI...

This week, host Basant Kumar is joined by Newslaundry ’s Shivnarayan Rajpurohit and Main Media founder Tanzil Asif. The conversation begins with Shivnarayan’s ground report on the posters in Northeast Delhi asking Hindus not to sell their properties to Muslims. He recalls his conversations with Pradeep Sharma, the lawyer on whose behalf the posters have allegedly been issued.  Sharma, interes...

This week, host Akanksha Kumar is joined by Newslaundry ’s Pratyush Deep and freelance journalist Devendra Pratap Singh Shekhawat.  The conversation begins with Devendra’s report on sexual blackmail schemes spreading from the upper echelons of Indian society to the poor and working class. As Devendra recalls his conversations with victims and perpetrators, the panel discusses the problem of u...

This week, it’s an all- Newslaundry panel as Basant Kumar is joined by Avdhesh Kumar and Prateek Goyal.  The conversation begins with their recent reports. Avdhesh points to his experience in UP’s Bareilly , where a principal and teacher were booked after students at a government school recited ‘lab pe aati hai dua’ – an iconic poem by Allama Iqbal. Prateek then talks about his coverage from...

It’s a full-house this week as Ayush Tiwari and Basant Kumar host all the other NL reporters.  00:00:00 - Introduction 00:02:51 - Punjab and Gujarat coverage 00:10:31 - Rajasthan’s Caste violence 00:18:09 - Smriti Irani and Disha Salian reports 00:31:17 - Pawan Jaiswal’s death 00:35:37 - Caste based garveyards 00:47:26 - Wire vs Meta 00:53:08 - Kerala Protests 00:59:38 - Swaraj Show and NDTV...

This week, host Akanksha Kumar is joined by Newslaundry ’s Alenjith K Johny and Prajwal Bhat from The News Minute .  The conversation begins with Prajwal’s investigative report on the theft of voter data by an NGO that was tasked with raising awareness about voter rights in Bengaluru. “They were asking for ID proofs and marital status. Moreover, they were mapping out constantly, marking out a...

It is an all- Newslaundry panel this week as Basant Kumar is joined by Ashwine Kumar Singh and Akanksha Kumar.  Ashwin talks about his story on layoffs in the news industry, specifically at Zee Media, and the reasons for it. He points to the role of India's weak labour laws and Big Tech in rendering media jobs precarious.  The discussion then moves to Akanksha's story about a missing DDA...

This week, it’s an all- Newslaundry panel as Ayush Tiwari is joined by Basant Kumar and Akanksha Kumar.  The conversation begins with the Gujarat poll results as Basant recalls his observations in Gujarat, including his visits to villages which have declared themselves a part of “Hindu Rashtra”.  The discussion moves to the MCD election as Akanksha dissects the mandate and how voting pre...

This week, it’s an all- Newslaundry panel as Akanksha Kumar is joined by Prateek Goyal and Anmol Pritam.  The conversation begins with Prateek’s report on hundreds of undertrial prisoners who are languishing in Maharashtra’s prisons despite bail. Many don’t have the money or social connections to fulfil bail conditions. They talk about how there is a lack of data even though the government ha...

This week, it’s an all- Newslaundry panel as Akanksha Kumar is joined by Basant Kumar and Ayush Tiwari.   Basant kicks off the podcast by talking about the ongoing election season in Gujarat, the ground realities of the Gujarat model, unemployment , Narendra Modi’s image, and unkept promises such as those surrounding the sugar mill in Kodinar. He explains how the closing down of one mill has...

This week, it’s an all- Newslaundry panel as Ayush Tiwari is joined by Tanishka Sodhi and Shivnarayan Rajpurohit.  The conversation begins with Shiv’s report on stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana as he details how the latter is performing better in tackling the problem. “If you ask officials from either states, they will obviously say they are strict about it, but it’s what we witnessed on...

This week, host Basant Kumar is joined by Rajnish Kumar of BBC Hindi and Hindustan journalist Akhilesh Singh.   Akhilesh talks about Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren being summoned by the Enforcement Directorate for questioning in a money laundering probe linked to alleged illegal mining. He also tells the panel about the raid on Congress MLAs and how one of the cars had a BJP sticker on...

This week, host Akanksha Kumar is joined by Ashwine Kumar Singh of Newslaundry and freelance journalist Vidheesha Kuntamalla.   Vidheesha talks about her report on how the Andhra Pradesh government is collecting sensitive data from citizens, including income and Aadhaar details and asset ownership, and how it is an exercise in profiling citizens and invading their privacy.    Ashwin...

This week, host Basant Kumar is joined by freelance journalists Neeraj Priyadarshy and Prashant Pandey.  The conversation begins with Prashant’s report as he details the flood situation in 17 districts of Uttar Pradesh. "For many years, these people won't be able to forget the pain of their destroyed homes,” says Prashant, adding that villages near the Ghagra and Sharda rivers witness such sc...

This week, host Ayush Tiwari is joined by Newslaundry reporters Ashwine Kumar Singh and Aditi Agarwal.  Aditi discusses her report on the Wire versus Meta feud and explains what it was all about, what was at stake and went wrong for the Indian news website. Speaking about her experience reporting this story, Aditi says, “It’s very difficult as a tech reporter to come up with stories as major...

This week, host Akanksha Kumar is joined by Pratyush Deep from Newslaundry and Kritika Goel, deputy editor at the Quint where she leads a fact-checking initiative. Kritika explains her report on how #BoycottBollywood hashtags are closely linked to Facebook pages that were once part of the #JusticeforSSR campaign. “It’s very evident from the kind of activity we see online, the kind of activity we s...

This week host Basant Kumar is joined by Newslaundry ’s Akanksha Kumar. Akanksha discusses her report about two Muslim men in Uttar Pradesh who were arrested last year and accused of having links with Al Qaeda. “The only evidence in this case is digital and it is normal messages and calls,” she says. She also discusses her report about a Dainik Jagran journalist who was allegedly assaulted fo...

This week, host Ayush Tiwari is joined by Newslaundry reporters Pratyush Deep and Prateek Goyal.  Pratyush talks about his report on Delhi’s efforts to eradicate manual scavenging, and how its claim that it has “no manual scavengers” isn’t quite true. “The situation on the ground is different,” he explains. Prateek then discusses the world of illegal loan apps in India , and how those offerin...

Host Basant Kumar is joined by freelance journalists Anand Dutta and Umesh K Ray.  They talk about Anand’s report for BBC on loan sharks in Jharkhand, including how one pregnant woman was run over by a cartel of debt collectors. Anand explains how poverty is rising in the state and how people who took out loans before the pandemic are now trapped in huge debts.  Umesh talks about his sto...

In this episode, host Nidhi Suresh is joined by Newslaundry reporters Ayush Tiwari and Basant Kumar.  They discuss Ayush’s report on billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s investment in TV news channel News Nation . “Only reason people know about it is because at one point Deepak Chaurasia was a primetime anchor on the channel and all he used to do was spread fake news and hate,” Ayush say...

This week, it’s an inhouse panel as host Ayush Tiwari is joined by Nidhi Suresh and Prateek Goyal.  They discuss Nidhi’s story on Siddique Kappan’s bail hearing and the Uttar Pradesh government’s affidavit arguing why he should stay in jail. “They have basically taken pamphlets found with Kappan during his arrest as the base for all this which are as normal as any other pamphlets you will fin...

This week, it’s an all- Newslaundry panel as host Basant Kumar is joined by Nidhi Suresh and Ayush Tiwari.   They discuss Ayush’s report on the Adani group’s takeover of NDTV. Talking about the 2009 loan agreement between NDTV and Reliance-linked Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited that paved the way for the Adani takeover, Ayush says, “It was kind of silly for NDTV to assume that s...

This week, it’s an all- Newslaundry panel as Nidhi Suresh is joined by Shivnarayan Rajpurohit and Pratyush Deep.  They discuss Shiv’s report on Delhi’s new excise policy and allegations of irregularities against deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia. “The problem with the policy lies where the government should have held consultation with all stakeholders, but it didn’t,” Shiv says.  The...

Ayush Tiwari is joined by Newslaundry’s Nidhi Suresh and Basant Kumar.  They discuss Basant’s first report in the NL Sena series on yoga guru and business tycoon Ramdev. Basant speaks about Ramdev’s background and the allegations of nepotism and exploitation against him and his family. “People from his own family and town resent him but there are some people who are still proud of him for how...