No, Journalists Are Not Being Paid to Write Against PM Modi

Relax! Journalists and bureaucrats are not being paid to write against PM Narendra Modi.

A viral post falsely claims that 68 journalists, writers and bureaucrats are being paid to write against PM Narendra Modi.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

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CLAIM

A viral post claims that 68 journalists, writers and bureaucrats are given two to five lakhs per month to write against Prime Minister Narendra Modi through data analytics company Cambridge Analytica.

The message is being attributed to an article published on fake news website Postcard News. Though the article does not reveal the names of the 68 journalists, the viral message accompanying the article carries a list of names.

Postcard News published an article in April 2018 on journalists being paid to write against PM Narendra Modi.(Photo: Screenshot from Postcard News)

Several social media users have shared the aforementioned article on Twitter and Facebook.

TRUE OR FALSE?

The claims made in this viral post are totally false.

The Quint reached out to some of the journalists who feature in the list. Siddharth Varadarajan, Founding Editor, The Wire and Ravish Kumar, Senior Executive Editor at NDTV India flatly denied the claim and termed it fake news.

“This is very typical. All of us should have broad shoulders to take abuse and carry on. This mud slinging is a professional hazard. As journalists, we should not let abuse intimidate us and I don’t think we should take much notice of the same.”

Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief, The Print

Harsh Mander, a social activist, also featured in the list, opined on how people are not able to take dissent and termed such messages as nothing but “futile imagination.”

“People are not able to deal with dissent. In democracy, dissent needs to be dealt with its merits. One needs to accept the possibility and probability of having dissenting opinions against the ruling establishment.”

Harsh Mander, a social activist

Aakar Patel, a writer and columnist based in Bengaluru who is also the executive director at Amnesty India is another one among the list of 68 journalists. He questioned the individuals who are spreading these names.

“Since the individuals spreading these names know who has been paid, can they also inform those on the list where this money is? My account is short by Rs 15 lakh which a friend promised me would have come by now.”

Aakar Patel, Executive Director at Amnesty India 

A closer look at the list also showed that the names of the people mentioned in the list are spelt wrong. For instance, it is Shekhar Gupta and not ‘Sekhar Gupta’; Ravish Kumar and not ‘Rabies Kumar,’ among others.

Fake news debunker BOOM had on 28 May 2018 busted the news but the names of the journalists had not been revealed then.

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