Reporters Without Orders

In this episode, host Basant Kumar is joined by Newslaundry’s Ayush Tewari and Supriti David. The conversation starts with Ayush and Basant’s report on Dainik Jagran running a disingenuous PR campaign for the UP government’s farm policies. Ayush points out the “questionable relationship between media houses and governments” and describes how impactful these campaigns can be. On the toolkit case and Disha Ravi getting bail, Supriti talks about her report, her experience in court, and the...

In this episode, host Ayush Tewari is joined by Newslaundry’s Akanksha Kumar and Anna Priyadarshini. The conversation starts with the reporters sharing the bizarre news stories of the week, from an Indonesian woman claiming a gust of wind made her pregnant to the Indian higher education regulator UGC asking universities to encourage students to write a “cow science” examination. The discussion begins with Anna’s report on the verdict in BJP leader MJ Akbar’s defamation case against...

In this episode, Nidhi Suresh takes over as host and she’s joined by Newslaundry’s Ayush Tiwari. Nidhi asks Ayush about his coverage of the farmer protests at Ghazipur and Singhu. Ayush notes that in Ghazipur, the resentment of sugarcane farmers is “driving them” to protest sites. “The andolan, the movement, has very successfully sucked up all the resentment and turned it into energy to run these protests,” he says. Ayush also talks about his reports from western Uttar Pradesh, the role of...

In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Ayush Tiwari, Basant Kumar, and Nidhi Suresh to discuss the ongoing farmer protests and the events that unfolded after the tractor rally on January 26. Basant describes the absurdity of the police barricading Singhu border. “What can be more bizarre than being there, and feeling as if we’re standing at India’s international border with so many BSP and CRPF officers guarding it?” he asks. “Tall, newly-constructed cement walls...

In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry correspondents, Nidhi Suresh and Basant Kumar, along with producer Aditya Varrier to discuss their experiences while reporting from the farmers’ tractor rally on Republic Day. Nidhi, Basant, and Aditya begin with a chronological lowdown of how events unfolded on January 26. Nidhi describes the confusion on the ground succinctly when she says, “ We were receiving news on social media that tear gas shelling has started but...

In this episode, the host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Ayush Tiwari to discuss the television ratings scam and the WhatsApp chats between Republic TV’s editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and Partho Dasgupta, the former CEO of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC). Ayush begins by pointing out that the chats revealed something that everyone already suspected—that behind all the nationalistic clamour on Indian television news, there is nothing but a network of opportunists and...

In this episode, the host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Basant Kumar and Ayush Tiwari. From a buffalo’s funeral in Meerut to BJP MP Hema Malini’s ignorant comments about the farmers -- the trio share a few laughs talking about the most bizarre news stories they heard during the week. The conversation then moves to the farmer protests. Snigdha shares the latest updates including the Supreme Court-appointed committee to resolve the crisis, which in turn brings her to the...

In this episode, the host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Basant Kumar and Akanksha Kumar. The conversation starts off with some bizarre news stories and quickly moves to Basant’s report on the association of right-wing groups with most cases registered under the new anti-conversion law in Uttar Pradesh. The discussion then shifts to Akanksha’s report on how a local right-wing body disrupted a consensual interfaith marriage in Lucknow. The triad discusses the role of local fringe...

Not a single year goes by when some part of our country is struck by a natural disaster. This year was no different, with floods, cyclones, droughts, and wildfires. Add to that the Covid-19 pandemic. In this episode, the host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Assam correspondent, Supriti David, to discuss the devastating annual floods in Assam caused by the Brahmaputra river. Supriti covered a stretch of over 1000 kms across the banks of the treacherous river to document the...

In this episode, the host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Nidhi Suresh and The Hindu’s Uttar Pradesh correspondent, Omar Rashid. The conversation starts off with the panelists sharing the strangest news stories they heard during the week. They then move on to discuss what the bogey of Love Jihad really means? “Basically it’s a political lie created by the right-wing to criminalise the behaviour of Muslim men when it comes to their interaction with Hindu women,” says Omar. The...

In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Basant Kumar and Anna Priyadarshini. The conversation hits off with the bizarre news stories, from a fisherman finding the world’s biggest blob of whale vomit worth 2.4 million pounds to a wife of a dead Patiala man receiving a ‘sample-collected’ SMS on her husband’s phone. The discussion begins with Anna and Ayush’s report on ex-soldiers at the farmer protests denouncing the Naxal jibes at them by Union Minister Piyush Goyal....

In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Supriti David and Scroll’s Arunabh Saikia . Through the length of the episode, the panel discusses the Baghjan oil field fire in Assam, its consequences and the role of Oil India Limited. All this and a lot more as they talk about what made news this week, what didn’t, and what shouldn’t have. Tune in! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Basant Kumar and Nidhi Suresh. Through the length of the episode, the panel discusses several aspects of the farmers’ protest. They shed light on the media’s coverage, the farmers’ perspective, the role political parties are playing, and the steps taken by the government to resolve the issues. All this and a lot more as they talk about what made news this week, what didn’t, and what shouldn’t have. Tune in! See...

In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Ayush Tiwari and Akanksha Kumar “if you give birth to a girl, we will not let you or her stay alive.” This is what young Pappi Devi’s in-laws told her before she and her newborn baby girl died in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district. The conversation begins with Akanksha narrating the young woman’s story and the mysterious circumstances surrounding their deaths. Questioning why no arrests have been made in the case till...

In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Ayush Tiwari and Nidhi Suresh. The conversation begins with Ayush’s report on the Broadcast Audience Research Council and why its audience measurement system is “rotten”. The panel discusses how BARC’s functioning and systems are “highly manipulative” and “not accurate”. On the organisation suspending TV news ratings for three months while it “reviews protocols”, Ayush says: “India’s premier TV audience measurement agency needs...

In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Basant Kumar and BBC’s Neeraj Priyadarshi. The conversation begins with the Bihar election results, and Basant describes his experience of covering the election on the ground. Throughout the election, he says, people made their discontent clear against the Nitish Kumar government. “I was wrong when I thought that this time, the election was just about real issues. But no, this year again, it was about caste,” he adds....

In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Basant Kumar and Prateek Goyal The conversation hits off with the arrest of Arnab Goswami by Mumbai police. For the first time in the country, some of the most important ministers of the union cabinet came together and called for press freedom to condemn the event. Considering the numerous incidents of journalists being harassed for doing their job that did not see public denouncement from anyone from the government, Snigdha...

In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Akanksha Kumar and Ayush Tiwari. From a warmongering senior politician from Uttar Pradesh to a recently-formed “nationalist” digital media association, the conversation hits off with some bizarre news stories. The discussion moves on to Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri--a place that has recently gained notoriety for crimes against women, especially minors from socially disadvantaged communities. In the month of August, within a...

In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Newslaundry’s Nidhi Suresh and Basant Kumar. The conversation begins with Basant’s coverage of the Bihar assembly election. Despite the incumbent government’s claims of making bihar free of open defecation, Basant points out how, barely 500 meters from the deputy chief minister’s house, the residents of a Dalit colony are forced to defecate in the open. Basant goes on to explain how big a role caste plays during elections in Bihar. He also...

In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma is joined by Gaurav Sarkar, Senior Reporter at Mid-Day, along with Newslaundry’s Akanksha Kumar. The conversation hits off with the bizarre news stories, from Jeff Bezos’ New Shephard to the Tanishq ad controversy. The discussion then moves on to the TRP scam. Gaurav says a certain section of the media, however small, including Newslaundry, should pat themselves on the back for calling out big brands for finding hate-ridden news. He says, pointing to...