Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Newslaundry
Newslaundry
National
Prateek Goyal

From ‘Godi media’ taunts to assault: The reporters caught in Jantar Mantar’s anger

NDTV Jantar Mantar CJP Sonam Wangchuk Times Now Police

Four days after a young NDTV reporter covered the CJP protest at Jantar Mantar, her mother was surrounded in a neighbourhood park by people demanding to know why her daughter had lied.

They had watched a viral video of the journalist and told the mother: “Why did your daughter lie? She is a liar, Godi media.”

By then, the reporter had already spent days absorbing worse. A group told her at the protest site: “Pimp, pig, you sleep with your father, your mother is …”. Online, she received rape threats and death threats. She has since taken leave from work. According to a source close to her, she now wears a mask when she steps out so that she isn’t recognised.

Within the last four days at Jantar Mantar, reporters from various media channels have been heckled and, in at least two instances, physically targeted by sections of the crowd – one of them chased into a police vehicle that was later pelted with stones. The pattern exposes a problem the television industry has largely refused to confront: public anger at prime-time news, accumulated over years, is being taken out on the people with little say in what goes on air.

‘NDTV ki dalli aurat hai’

The NDTV reporter went to Jantar Mantar on July 18, the day Sonam Wangchuk was taken away by the Delhi Police. She had previously covered the NEET paper leak and questioned the accountability of the National Testing Agency. She was among the few reporters present when Wangchuk was taken away in an ambulance.

Reporting live, she said Wangchuk had been forcibly taken away and that protesters saw the action as an attack on the Constitution. When the anchor asked for the police version, she quoted the DCP’s statement – issued after the detention – that the police had acted peacefully and exercised restraint.

That was when the crowd turned. Some protesters began shouting “NDTV ki dalli aurat hai” (She is a pimp from NDTV). Others joined in. She was called “Dalal media” and “Godi media”, told she had come from Modi’s guest house, and told to leave. Someone recorded her.

The video was posted by a social media account and clocked 60 million views. Links to her personal accounts were circulated; her photographs were posted in the comments.

She received threats but returned to cover the protest the next day anyway. This time she was recognised and surrounded. Protesters made sexually explicit remarks, called her “suwar” and “dalal”, said she slept with her father, and pulled at her shirt. The evening after that, her mother was confronted in the park.

‘They took away my phone’

Two videos of Times Now reporter Dev Kotak circulated on social media, showing an assault by a section of the crowd. In one, two protesters are seen leading him away while he appears to be in shock. “You are safe now,” they tell him. Kotak can be heard asking, “Where is my phone?” His shirt was torn. His phone had been snatched.

One of the men who pulled him out said: “We put in a lot of effort to save his life. There is a lot of anger against the media among the people, but something like this should not happen at all. Some youngsters did wrong, but we saved him and brought him here.”

In the second video, Kotak describes what happened: “From six different directions, 100 punches, kicks, slaps, water, and bottles were thrown at me. They took away my spectacles. As my spectacles were not there, I was not able to see clearly. I was telling them that I was not able to see without my spectacles and asking them not to beat me on my face … I was telling them that I had not done anything wrong and that I was just leaving, but they pushed me down and started kicking me. They snatched away my mobile phone, watch, and glasses.”

The same day, ABP News reporter Varun Bhasin was chased by protesters.

Bhasin was near Parliament when he learnt that protesters had reached Rail Bhawan, and rushed there. “He was simply standing with his microphone and talking to two or three students,” said a source privy to the incident. “Before he could even begin reporting, the protesters noticed his microphone and surrounded him … They said to him, ‘Why do you never show our side of the story? Why have you come now? It is too late.’”

Water and trash were thrown at him. Someone tried to push money into his pocket. Bhasin didn’t respond; he kept smiling and tried to walk away. The crowd followed.

“To save himself, he got into a Delhi Police vehicle,” the source said. “The mob opened the door and tried to pull him out by holding his legs … Somehow, the driver acted quickly and sped the vehicle away. They chased the vehicle, pelting stones on it, damaging the back windshield mirror.”

NDTV journalist Ravish Ranjan Shukla was also heckled and called “Godi media”; a video of the episode was posted online. “In my 22-year career in journalism, I have worked in six cities across four states. Governments have come and gone, yet I never sought even the slightest personal gain from anyone, nor did I ever pander to those in power. That is why the question of bowing down simply does not arise. I am a field reporter; I report exactly what I see, with complete impartiality,” Shukla later tweeted.

NDTV’s Anushka Garg, along with Times Now’s Shafali Nigam and Jyoti Mishra, were also among other reporters harassed at the site.

Shafali Nigam told viewers on air, “My cameraman was heckled. He was grabbed by the neck, held by his collar, and thrown backwards. I went up to them and told them that they couldn't do that. That was when someone kicked me on my right leg.”

Times Now said “the manner in which some persons chose to express their disagreement through violence can have a chilling effect on the free movement and functioning of journalists across India, which is not in the interests of democracy. We may differ in views, but we cannot take the law into our own hands.”

Shambhavi Srivastava, a principal correspondent with Republic TV, was hit during the July 20 march. “They hit me on my chest, they hit me on my arm and people deliberately stormed on my feet with their heels and shoes and there was one person who was particularly not happy with the media house that im working with and he had some sort of sharp object a pen or something and he managed to stab me with it,” she said on her channel.

View this post on Instagram

Peek TV co-founder Priyanshi Sharma was heckled for asking questions critical of the CJP leadership on the day of the Parliament march.

The attacks have set off an argument within the profession itself. Some journalists, writing online, have located the cause in the industry rather than the crowd – arguing that years of slanted prime-time coverage built the hostility that field reporters are now walking into. Others have directed their appeals at the protesters, asking that whatever the grievance against a channel, it not be settled on the person holding its microphone.

The anger and its address

Journalists who covered the protest say the hostility is not new, but its intensity is.

“I have covered the farmers’ protest as well, and I was called Godi Media because of the news organisations I worked for, including Zee, Times Now and ABP,” said one. “But this protest felt different. Reporters from television news channels were facing what looked like lynching type attacks, and that is deeply worrying. Reporters are the people on the ground, and in my experience, 90 percent of them report the facts accurately. It is the people sitting in the newsroom, the owners, editors and prime-time anchors, who decide the editorial line and shape the narratives.”

He added: “It is high time to change all this. Otherwise, reporters on the ground will continue to bear the consequences of the agendas set by news channels and the anchors.”

A senior journalist described the heckling as routine. “There are some fringe elements among the protesters who indulge in such behaviour, and this kind of heckling has now become a part of many protests. Because of the way many mainstream television news channels operate, reporters on the ground end up paying the price. Even we do not agree with many of the narratives being pushed by news channels. But reporters do not make editorial decisions … Unfortunately, reporters have been generalised because of the actions of news channels.”

He was careful not to absolve the industry. “It is true that some channels engage in practices that cannot be called journalism, but field reporters are not the ones responsible for those decisions. If there is criticism to be made, it should be directed at those who set the editorial agenda and use television platforms to spread false narratives and support those in power, not at the reporters who are sent to cover events.”

Another journalist at the site said: “The anger many people feel towards sections of the television news industry is real. But that anger is often directed at the wrong people. It is not field reporters who decide editorial lines, shape prime-time debates or push misleading narratives … Targeting reporters on the ground, many of whom are simply doing their jobs, only makes journalism more difficult.”

Several videos in circulation also show protesters intervening to pull reporters out of hostile crowds, and protesters were not the only obstacle journalists faced.

During the July 20 march, several journalists also faced police action. That is a separate story, but it belongs in the frame here for a simple reason: the people covering Jantar Mantar have been squeezed from both directions.

Newslaundry is a reader-supported, ad-free, independent news outlet based out of New Delhi. Support their journalism, here.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Angelina Jolie’s Daughter Vivienne Takes Legal Action In Subtle Attack On Father Brad Pitt
One netizen criticized Brad Pitt, writing, "It's a shame when fathers can't do their job right."
Bored Panda
Bored Panda
Spider-Man: Brand New Day Almost Added 'A Whole Bunch Of Villains,' And I Need To Know More
I've got some Spidey-related FOMO.
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
Mother-daughter In-N-Out trip turns into panic after realizing they might’ve eaten live worms
She finished her whole burger just in time to watch a live worm move around on her daughter's
We Got This Covered
We Got This Covered
Hear Me Out: The First Blockbuster Is 'Star Wars,' Not 'Jaws'
Here's why we need to stop saying 'Jaws' was the first blockbuster when it's clearly 'Star Wars.'
Inverse
Inverse
Psychology says people who keep deleting and rewriting messages may be overthinking more than they realize
While excessive editing can sometimes reflect overthinking, it can also demonstrate consideration, empathy, and careful communication. Rather than assuming someone is insecure, psychology suggests that rewriting messages usually reflects how differently people process social interactions. Some communicate spontaneously, while others naturally prefer to think before they speak, or type.
The Economic Times
The Economic Times
Shabana Azeez: ‘The most disgusting thing I’ve seen on The Pitt? American coffee’
The Australian actor on posing as a patient for medical schools, having multiple birthdays on The Airport Chaplain and the song ‘nobody likes’ by the Strokes
The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play