Sting operation exposes senior editors of Zee, Times Group, Hindustan Times, India Today, ABP News willing to promote Hindutva agenda
In the fresh expose, CobraPost’s sting operation shows senior Paytm members accepting that they shared data of Kashmiris with PMO after they got a call.
Investigative platform Cobrapost, two months after exposing several Indian media houses whose representatives allegedly showed willingness to peddle the Hindutva ideology and malign many senior Opposition leaders and Union Ministers in lieu of proceeds ranging from ₹6 crore to ₹50 crore, has released a second batch of video recordings shot surreptitiously by an undercover reporter that shows managers and owners of some of the largest newspapers and TV channels succumbing to the same package of Hindutva advertorials.
Cobrapost said on Friday that the recordings it made showed how some two dozen news organisations were willing to “not only cause communal disharmony among the citizens but also tilt the electoral outcome in favour of a particular party” for a price.
‘Operation 136’, as the investigation is called, carried out several undercover operations through hidden camera, establishing that media publications in India “agreed to publish content with a potential to polarise the electorate along communal lines.”
ALSO READ: CobraPost sting ‘Operation 136’ reveals Paytm shared data of Kashmiris with PMO
As the operation revealed, media houses were also ready to plant stories against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, Union Ministers and the ruling party’s alliance partners, framing political conspiracies and reports of in-infighting, for the right price.
Posing as a representative of a fictitious organisation Shrimad Bhagvad Gita Prachar Samiti, journalist Pushp Sharma told the media representatives that he was on a mission, a gupt vyavastha (secret arrangement), at the behest of the “Sangathan” to bolster the prospects of the party in power in coming elections.
Several Indian media houses, have been recorded discussing ways in which proposed transactions running into hundreds of crores of rupees could be conducted using cash, this includes, Vineet Jain of the Times Group.
Times Group owns the Times Now channel, the Times of India and several other media platforms. The ease with which Jain discusses ways in which the undercover reporter could pay the company using black money by routing those payments through other business houses and families is hard to reconcile with Times Now’s campaigns in favour of demonetisation – which Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said was needed in order to deal with black money.
The second and final instalment of the exposé – codenamed Operation 136 – saw a total of 25 media houses “crumble under the weight of a ‘big business opportunity’ that was knocking on their doors without asking,” Cobrapost said.
Zee News
#MediaOnSale Purushottam of Zee media clearly saying that they have a proper team to adjust cash amount. pic.twitter.com/yK9jU1NDOp
— Cobrapost (@cobrapost) May 26, 2018
Times Group
#MediaOnSale: Listen… what Vineet Jain says on cash adjustment part. pic.twitter.com/Ifk2xMKK2m
— Cobrapost (@cobrapost) May 25, 2018
Hindustan Times
#MediaOnSale Chief Revenue Officer, Anil Dua of Hindustan Times, has no problem and he was willing to run hindutva agenda in his media outlet pic.twitter.com/bEFjDcpmZa
— Cobrapost (@cobrapost) May 25, 2018
ABP News
#MediaOnSale ABP group is running campaign to thrash political rivals of a perticular party. pic.twitter.com/c2eDxueUBL
— Cobrapost (@cobrapost) May 26, 2018
MLA of Bharatiya Janata Party runs Hindutva agenda in her own regional channel.
#MediaOnSale This MLA of Bharatiya Janata Party runs hindutva agenda in her own regional channel. pic.twitter.com/q7UWdW9S7u
— Cobrapost (@cobrapost) May 26, 2018
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