Barkha Dutt Says NDTV ‘Axing’ Stories Is Hardly An “Aberration”

Barkha Dutt calls out NDTV after Sreenivasan Jain’s post about his story on Jay Shah being taken down.

On Tuesday night, NDTV’s Managing Editor Sreenivasan Jain took to social media to make known his disappointment with his organisation over its decision to take down a story reported by him and Manas Pratap Singh on the business dealings of Jay Shah, son of BJP chief, Amit Shah.

On his Facebook profile, Jain said:

NDTV’s lawyers said it needed to be removed for “legal vetting”. It has still not been restored. This is deeply unfortunate, since the report is based entirely on facts in the public domain and makes no unsubstantiated or unwarranted assertions.

He then went on to say while he disagrees with NDTV’s decision to take down the story, he considers it an “aberration”.

Soon after, Barkha Dutt, a former employee of NDTV retorted, without naming Jain in particular. Dutt took to Twitter to point out that her former employers have resorted to “axing” stories in the past, and that this is not an “aberration”.

For the last few days I have observed with cynical amusement a public debate around NDTV taking down a story related to Amit Shah. I am not getting into the specifics of the story here and whether the story was right or wrong but I did point out when I first heard the controversy that the axing of stories at NDTV is hardly new and those seeking the higher moral ground today remained absolutely silent when some of us fought with the owners and management over these issues.

The “issues” Dutt is referring to is an interview she conducted with former Home Minister P Chidambaram, which was taken down by the channel in the aftermath of the surgical strikes.

Dutt also refers to an interview conducted by her former colleague, Nitin Gokhale, with the then outgoing Navy chief, which was taken down. This is something Gokhale himself has also spoken about in the last 24 hours.

Jain’s Response to Dutt

The slugfest carried on, with Jain responding to Dutt’s criticism – again, without actually naming her. He took to Twitter to say:

Had decided to not respond to noise around my statement - abuse, support, whatever. Journalists tell stories. They are not the story.

— Sreenivasan Jain (@SreenivasanJain) October 18, 2017

But seeing how some are using this to pile on to NDTV, remember - can't think of too many org'n's that allow public dissent from within.

— Sreenivasan Jain (@SreenivasanJain) October 18, 2017

Is every media house perfect? No. But how many, despite aberrations, allow challenge to power? Lets not lose sight of that. - fin-

— Sreenivasan Jain (@SreenivasanJain) October 18, 2017

Read Dutt’s post in its entirety below:

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