Reporters Without Orders

Basant Kumar is joined for this episode by fellow Newslaundry reporter Prateek Goyal.  They discuss the NL Sena series by Prateek and Ashwine Kumar Singh about Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s “bulldozer campaign”, and who it’s targeting. “The government says that they are fighting the mafia by bulldozing their houses but if you look closely that isn’t the case,” Prateek...

In this episode, host Nidhi Suresh is joined by Newslaundry reporter Tanishka Sodhi and writer and journalist Aishwarya Subramanyam.  Aishwarya discusses her interview with actor Ranveer Singh on the set of his now-controversial nude photoshoot. Speaking about how interviewing styles have evolved, Aishwarya says, “Back in the day there was a process of observing the person for days before wri...

In this episode, host Ayush Tiwari is joined by Newslaundry ’s Nidhi Suresh and Shivnarayan Rajpurohit.  Nidhi discusses her report on the Delhi police allegedly assaulting transgender people from a shelter home in Sitapuri. They had gone to a local police station after the police, some apparently from across the border in Uttar Pradesh, had taken away a trans man from the shelter against his...

In this episode, host Nidhi Suresh is joined by Newslaundry ’s Tanishka Sodhi and Pratyush Deep.  Pratyush discusses his report from Assam, where a student was charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for allegedly backing banned separatist outfit United Liberation Front of Asom on social media. “The one line which led her to jail was apparently read by the police in the sense tha...

Basant Kumar and Ashwine Kumar Singh of Newslaundry are joined by freelance journalist Anand Dutta in this episode. They discuss Anand’s BBC report on how a school in Jharkhand’s Korwadih village became the subject of fake news. Headlines suggested that Muslims in the area had pressured the school to change its manner of praying. Anand said the principal of the school denied the claim. “The news t...

In this episode, host Basant Kumar is joined by Newslaundry ’s Nidhi Suresh and Ashwine Kumar Singh.  They talk about Ashwine’s story on Sudhir Chaudhary and what led to his resignation from Zee News . “Subhash Chandra’s biggest issue with Sudhir was that he got bigger than the channel and that bothered Chandra to an extent that he asked Sudhir to host his own show alternate days a week,” say...

Host Ayush Tiwari is joined by Newslaundry ’s Tanishka Sodhi and Prateek Goyal.  They discuss Prateek’s report on the political crisis in Maharashtra which culminated in the fall of Uddhav Thackeray's coalition government and rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde's installation as the chief minister.  Prateek traces Shinde’s rise from a corporator to MLA and now chief minister. “Shinde ha...

In this episode, host Nidhi Suresh is joined by Newslaundry ’s Shivnarayan Rajpurohit.  They discuss two reports by Shiv, including a profile of former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma and how her remarks against prophet Muhammad on a Times Now debate triggered her downfall. “You have freedom of speech but it isn’t absolute so you can’t say anything and get away with it,” Shiv says, adding that...

In this episode, host Basant Kumar is joined by Newslaundry ’s Ashwine Kumar Singh and freelance journalist Umesh Kumar Ray.  They talk about Umesh’s story on liquor trade in Bihar where alcohol is prohibited. “The liquor prohibition act has left manufacturers helpless," says Umesh, pointing to those who are forced to manufacture and sell booze due to lack of employment. “The government has n...

In this episode, host Ayush Tiwari is joined by Newslaundry ’s Nidhi Suresh.  Nidhi talks about her reports on Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala’s death. Apart from his contributions to music, the singer had also set up cancer camps at his native village Moosa, which has been ravaged by the disease. On his identity and music, Nidhi says, “His music seems to have a very different personality.” Th...

In this episode, host Akanksha Kumar is joined by Newslaundry ’s Shivnarayan Rajpurohit.   Shivnarayan talks about his experience attending an event organised by the RSS, where the highlight was a conclave on the state of the media, with awards handed out to a series of journalists. “You expect some good discussions on press freedom, while India is sliding down the press freedom index, b...

Host Nidhi Suresh is joined by Aishwarya Iyer of Scroll who talks about her series on the Hindutva campaign around the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.  In her series, Aishwarya talks about the five Hindu women whose petitions demanding permission to pray at the mosque have propelled the campaign. She examines their links with a former Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Sohan Lal Arya wh...

This week, host Basant Kumar is joined by Newslaundry’s Tanishka Sodhi and freelance journalist Vishnu Narayan.  Tanishka talks about her recent report on the death of rural journalist Pawan Jaiswal and how he struggled to pay for his cancer treatment. Noting that his death underlines grave problems with the journalism industry, she says, “Pawan was considered a star reporter but he was earni...

This week, host Nidhi Suresh is joined by journalist Cris from the News Minute .  Nidhi and Cris talk about Malayalam actor Dileep being accused of sexual assault, how the case has unfolded, and how it turned into a massive movement within the Malayalam film industry.  Cris, who has tracked the case since 2017, says, “Dileep is not just an actor but plays a much bigger role in the indust...

Timecodes 00:00 - Introduction 02:00 - Disha Salian’s media trial 21:00 - Nepotism in IIMC recruitments  35:26 - Recommendations This week, host Akanksha Kumar is joined by Newslaundry ’s Basant Kumar and Prateek Goel.   Prateek begins by talking about his story on Disha Salian’s media trial, an incident that showed Indian news channels at their unethical worst, and maligned and devastat...

Timecodes 00:00 - Introduction 01:22 - Sri Lanka crisis 28:23 - Jahangirpuri violence 50:37 - Recommendations This week, host Basant Kumar is joined by Newslaundry ’s Akanksha Kumar and Dainik Bhaskar special correspondent Poonam Kaushal. Poonam was in Sri Lanka reporting on the economic crisis . “I understood the real situation there,” she said. “People didn’t even have enough food for one meal....

This week, host Nidhi Suresh is joined by Newslaundry ’s Tanishka Sodhi and Laasya Shekhar.  Laasya talks about her report on the violence in Jahangirpuri and how, when she visited the area a day later, the fear on the ground was palpable. “People were afraid and also a bit hesitant to trust me because of the language barrier,” she says on her experience.  Tanishka talks about her story...

This week, host Akanksha Kumar is joined by Newslaundry ’s Laasya Shekhar and the Wire 's Saahil Murli Manghani. Saahil discusses his investigative report about the campaign against Urdu through the Haldiram’s controversy on Sudarshan News , and the products sold by the company abroad. “Even if you want to spew hate, I think Sudarshan News did not do their research properly,” he says. The panel go...

This week, host Basant Kumar is joined by Newslaundry ’s Shivangi Saxena and Ashwine Kumar Singh. Shivangi discusses her first person account of the sequence of events at the Hindu Mahapanchayat, where several journalists including herself, were manhandled. “No police personnel did anything to stop or arrest the mob who were beating the journalists,” she says. The panel goes on to discuss Ashwine’...

This week, host Nidhi Suresh is joined by Newslaundry ’s Laasya Shekhar and Tanishka Sodhi. Tanishka talks about her detailed report on why Umar Khalid’s bail plea was dismissed after eight months of hearings. “The attention to this case has reduced, even though it’s considered a special case under UAPA,” she says of the media’s dwindling interest.  The panel then discusses Laasya’s report on...

This week, host Akanksha Kumar is joined by journalists Kumar Sambhav and Shreegireesh Jalihal from the Reporters’ Collective .  They discuss Sambhav and Shreegireesh’s four-part series , along with journalist Nayantara Ranganathan, for Al Jazeera on how Facebook allowed “surrogate advertisers to secretly fund BJP’s election campaigns”. “The Election Commission needs to take into consideratio...

This week, host Ayush Tiwari is joined by Newslaundry 's Nidhi Suresh and the Quint ’s Fatima Khan.  The panel looks back at their reportage on the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Goa. Fatima explains how the Congress’s Priyanka Gandhi Vadra “evidently put in effort” in Uttar Pradesh “while the rest of the party lacks touch from the ground”.  Nidhi takes listeners through her rep...

This week, it’s an all- Newslaundry panel as Basant Kumar is joined by Ashwine Kumar and Prateek Goyal. As the conversation starts with the assembly election results in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Goa, Basant asks Ashwin and Prateek if they found the mandate shocking. “For an individual party to tackle BJP, whether in UP or any state in India, is impossible as of now,” says Prateek. They wonder...

This week, host Ayush Tiwari is joined by Newslaundry ’s Tanishka Sodhi and Supriti David.  Tanishka talks about her report on the aftermath of the Delhi riots 2020, and how people are still living with trauma while waiting for compensation from the government. With the Covid lockdown following the riots, she says, the compensation was inadequate to help those affected rebuild their lives. Su...

This week, it’s an all- Newslaundry panel as host Nidhi Suresh is joined by Ayush Tiwari and Akanksha Kumar.  They start by discussing Ayush’s report on youngsters being framed in UAPA cases in Punjab and shoddy police probes falling apart in court. “From 2009 till date, Punjab has seen 112 UAPA cases evoked on youngsters and conviction has happened in only three of them,” says Ayush, detaili...