Ravish Kumar and Siddharth Vardharajan reacts to NDTV Raids

Pradip Bhandari, the CEO and founder of Jan Ki Baat and Akriti Bhatia, co-founder Jan Ki Baat talked to NDTV’s senior journalist Ravish Kumar and Siddharth Varadarajan, Founding-editor of TheWire.in about the recent NDTV raids who are majorly of the opinion that the NDTV raids were farce and abrupt.

The Central Bureau of Investigation raided the home and some other premises associated with New Delhi Television founders, Radhika Roy and Prannoy Roy. The searches stemmed from a First Information Report it filed based on a complaint by Sanjay Dutt, a director of a firm named Quantum Securities Limited, which holds minority stakes in NDTV Ltd and ICICI Bank. The CBI investigation is based on an exhaustive complaint which accused the duo of “laundering funds” of Rs 403.85 crore to create an interest in favor of a shell company.

Ravish Kumar, senior journalist NDTV says that there are many people involved in the journalism world on their own, they do not work under a company. These days aren’t easy for them. The challenges are increasing. When an institution is made to stay under the gallows of fear, it affects the individual. There are various journalists in small towns and villages, this sense of fear is made to spread towards them as well.

Siddharth Vardharajan, Founding Editor of TheWire.in says that it is obvious as a fact that NDTV has been singled out by the government. As an example of media, NDTV isn’t showing the same degree of enthusiasm for the government’s so-called-achievements as the other channels are doing. Bhajanmandli  is a dominant form of media. If a channel is into Bhajanmandalism, it is good for it, otherwise it is targeted on some pretext or the other.

He urged the viewers to disregard the propaganda, allegations and suggestions of wrong doings and focus on the fact that what we’re seeing in the NDTV raids is an abuse on the process. It is astonishing that the raids were carried out on the house & premises of the the NDTV founder Prannoy Roy on the basis of the complaint filed on 27th April, 2017 without going through the normal process of putting queries to the promoters of the channel.

Whenever the CBI files a criminal complaint (an FIR) not of its own but only on the basis of information supplied by a third party, it must in furtherance of press freedom guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a), first inquire from the owners/promoters of the company running the press or the media concerned what it has to say in the matter before conducing raids on its premises and on premises of those in charge of the press or media and before filing a criminal complaint on the basis of such information. This is must do, not as a matter of courtesy or favor, but as a matter of constitutional obligation.