This week, host Shivnarayan Rajpurohit is joined by Newslaundry’s Avdhesh Kumar and Sumedha Mittal.
Avdhesh talks about his report on ‘half encounters’, or what the Uttar Pradesh Police call “Operation Langda”, which is a practice where police shoot suspects in the leg to capture them alive.
“Hemant, a young DJ operator from Mathura, was wrongfully picked up by UP police and shot in the leg,” says Avdhesh, who elaborated on the details of the fake encounter. He says 9,467 suspects were shot in the leg by UP police in such operations since 2017.
Sumedha then discusses her report, which estimates that the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir spent around Rs 70 crore on print ads over two-and-a-half years, with around Rs 12 crore cornered by just five newspapers. “The top three dailies that received the most ad money had overwhelmingly pro-LG Manoj Sinha and pro-Modi coverage,” she says.
Avdhesh also talks about his coverage of the recent protests by SSC aspirants over alleged irregularities in the exam.
Timecodes
00:00:00 - Introduction
00:01:10 - Half Encounter Story
00:16:21 - Kashmir Newspaper Ads
00:26:11 - SSC protests
00:31:08 - Half Encounter
00:32:30 - Recommendations
Avdhesh
Annihilation of Caste - Dr. BR Ambedkar
Insurance scams: मरे हुए 'ज़िंदा', ठगे गए परिवार, कहां तक फैले हैं घोटाले के तार?- ग्राउंड रिपोर्ट
Sumedha
Shivnarayan
Exclusive: India’s e-waste mirage, ‘crores in corporate fraud’ amid govt lapses, public suffering
Produced and edited by Saif Ali Ekram, recorded by Anil Kumar.
Shivnarayan: Order. Order. Welcome to another episode of Reporters Without Orders, where we discuss what made news, what did not, and something that absolutely should not have. Today's 5th of August, and we have got. Sad news, uh, that former governor Sattal Malik has passed away.
Uh, today I'm joined by my two colleagues, uh, who have done stories around half encounters in EU Pradesh, SSE, protest in Delhi, and add revenues for. Print media in Jamen, Kashmir, uh, Abdi, uh, and Sumida. Welcome to the show. Welcome to this podcast, Abdi. I'll start with you. Absh has done stories. Uh, two video reports, produced two video reports.
Uh, one on half encounter and the one on SSC protest. Abdi Start, uh, Joe Haffen encounter Kaka video report. He, me.[00:01:00] [00:02:00] [00:03:00] [00:04:00] [00:05:00]
Joe Crime S encounter, so-called alleged encounter encounter.[00:06:00]
Special operations.[00:07:00] [00:08:00]
Avdhesh: Police name.[00:09:00]
Shivnarayan: Overall, Joe Half encounter pay. Yeah, full encounter ma'am.[00:10:00] [00:11:00] [00:12:00]
Experience encounter victims. Uh. Socioeconomically, uh, coffee backward, backward,
Avdhesh: maximum.[00:13:00] [00:14:00] [00:15:00] [00:16:00]
Sumedha: So I don't think I can comment on that. Uh uh, I think their, uh, analysis of their coverage shows that may can only, um, help us assume K advertisement Jada. So, uh. And it's quite ironic. Podcast record on 5th of August, 2025. Job, six years ation of Article three 70 in Jam. K. Uh, so.[00:17:00]
Newspapers. One of them was Kashmir shut down, just, uh, editor and chief, uh, UA. So, uh,
so the media is kind of dead in kir, but responses, it's not dead. It is quite, I mean, Kafu funding and the amount of funding, which is estimated amount
70, that's a minimum
Shivnarayan: of 70. That's the
Sumedha: minimal of 70 Ks, hundreds over [00:18:00] hundreds. But this is the least amount which has been given to these, uh, about one 15 newspapers between April, 2022, two. October, 2024.
Shivnarayan: Newspapers,
Sumedha: newspaper had just.
Rising Kashmir. So rising Kir. Co coach 4.3 Cos uh, between 2022 to October, 2024. Newspaper 3.7 Crow, Diego, and Kash. Uh. Uh, Kashmir Images, Kashmir monitor and news or newspaper. So in Pancho Kab, uh, [00:19:00] bar total amount and which is 20% of the entire ad revenue. Matlab, 70,000, 20 of in punch newspapers, 1 45 newspapers, 80% share.
20% ads have punch newspapers or largest red newspapers. Kir, one of the largest red newspaper in Kashmir was Greater Kir. Interesting Kir 2019 newspaper
2019, some newspapers named.
Printing blank front pages of the newspapers. So but is newspaper 2022 and 2022. Interesting data. [00:20:00] 2022 to 2023 May yay newspaper, one of the top five recipients. Add, I mean it got add space off around. 23 lack in centimeters. 2023 financial rank top five 17th, and it lost 65% of the ad space that it was receiving earlier.
So. I think interesting newspapers, you re
and
there is a discrimination distribute so.
2021 Press Counsel of Complain
Harassment.[00:21:00]
Former Chief Minister Kash, uh, press Council of Fact finding C. C and Jam to talk to owners and editors and reporters of Kash. Media outlets or those fact finding committee report owners and editor, so important. There is a discrimination, just advertisements. This is being used as a carrot stick strategy of the government to, you know, like, to ensure that the newspapers fall in line.
Kiki, uh, Kashmir owners.
Companies already and,
and therefore their major chunk [00:22:00] of revenue is advertisement, state advertisement, so they won't be able to survive. So job. Uh, press Council of India, uh, dci, department of Public Information and Public Relations. Sobi Accept ki about, uh, 15 or 17 newspapers, zir, or a interesting example like newspaper, uh, Jo based newspaper, Hey, or Unka.
Because,
uh,
nonfunctional website function, so.
Which was later accepted by DIP, but complains are either torture, harassment, what vague reply,
Shivnarayan: torture, [00:23:00] harassment. Uh, there
Sumedha: was no like, complaints
Shivnarayan: against the paper. Right. Complaint
Sumedha: against the paper of torture and harassment.
Shivnarayan: Right. Uh, my next question is like about the, the top recipients. Uh. Who have received, uh, government ads, uh, have you seen that coverage?
Like how Right. Have you seen the journalism, uh, are they critical of the government, uh, or the Jam and Kashmir administration?
Sumedha: Ha, I think important coverage, I mean, it was not possible for us to look at the coverage of all one 50 newspapers. That is why we selected the top five newspapers, rising Kashmir, Kashmir images, Kashmir monitor, but we could not, uh, review then coverage of the two.
Because I don't know what to do. So newspapers, when we analyze their coverage, we found that the. All three newspapers favorite person was JI Man, uh, ham, 18 days frontage coverage, analyze care, newspapers, and rising Kashmir. 18 front [00:24:00] pages. Message 12, front page stories or second leader almost was serve hmm, jaki.
Uh, uh, most important person, powerful person, con.
Newspaper.
They had 23rd top hundred, so
like,
Shivnarayan: hmm.
Sumedha: And this new era of fees has assured in Kashmir. So this was a common pattern. Interesting.[00:25:00]
Main lead to newspaper. So says everything. Yeah. That case, why
Shivnarayan: they're getting, uh, huge government revenues,
Sumedha: right? So, lg, the second most favorite person was. So I think we have covered every statement of
Shivnarayan: Right. Uh.[00:26:00]
I think, uh.
Avdhesh: Mm.[00:27:00] [00:28:00] [00:29:00] [00:30:00] [00:31:00]
Shivnarayan: Encounter.
[00:32:00] Without fear
subscribers Support
News. Um, news project. We have India's ete Underworld. Uh. It may be eight story I have or be stories on Orbi cab,
uh,
of Recommendation
Restaurant.
Avdhesh: Uh.[00:33:00]
Insurance.
Shivnarayan: Recommendation.
Sumedha: I think I'll take a cue from one of our expert who recommended RA movie in last, and I won't shy who is?
Sorry,
Shivnarayan: who is one of the experts who recommended, I mean,
Sumedha: I don't remember, I can't recall his name, [00:34:00] but, uh, he is, one of the recommendations was.
Avdhesh: I
Sumedha: think it can make you cry. It made me cry.
Avdhesh: Okay.
Sumedha: So I think, uh, I mean, I'm suggesting something light and I think they should all go and watch the movie.
Shivnarayan: Right? Right. What is your recovery? So how many times have you watched this movie?
Sumedha: Two, two times.
Shivnarayan: Are you planning to go again?
Sumedha: Yeah, I might.
Shivnarayan: Right, right.
Recommendation.
Avdhesh: Recommendation.
Shivnarayan: I want to blow my own trumpet, um, EWA journals and project.
Or around 41 recycling plants, [00:35:00] schedule recycling plants. Eh, visit, I found 75% of them. Uh. Are running seemingly ghost operations. Yeah.
Registered addresses. It's a, it's a multi corporate fraud. Uh, maybe
Avdhesh: is, is.
Corporate or subscribers to.[00:36:00]
Shivnarayan: Thank you for kind words, dish. And with this, uh, this podcast is Adjourned
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