Speaking at the India Today Conclave, the Group Vice Chairperson Kalli Purie responded to the allegations of media being controlled by the government. Remembering the time before 2014, Kalli Purie said that a party, angry with the questions being asked, removed all 24 of its ministers from a program.
Kalli Purie said, “Nowadays a new trend of calling the media ‘sold out’ and ‘Godi Media‘ has started. People ask me to tell them honestly or personally or off the record if there is too much pressure. I want to say from this forum that yes there is a lot of pressure. This pressure is created by everyone from political parties to business houses and foreign governments. This pressure is not new.”
Kali Puri further said, “We were threatened for 10 years by the largest industrial house for running the cover story. We were threatened by an ambassador for doing a cover story about the Dalai Lama. Not only this, but there is also a party that removed all its 24 ministers from the conclave before the event. That party was not happy with the questions we were asking him. All this was before 2014.”
Purie also mentioned other practices like people boycotting a channel, uninstalling news applications, rating them down, etc. She added, “However, no one else is needed to deal with this pressure. These are all normal things.”
Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT cell head Amit Malviya shared the video of Purie’s statements and tweeted, “For all of Rahul Gandhi’s talk on democracy in danger, freedom of expression blah blah, here is Vice Chairperson of India Today group telling how before 2014, a certain political party pulled out all its ministers hours before the conclave because they didn’t like the questions.”
For all of Rahul Gandhi’s talk on democracy in danger, freedom of expression blah blah, here is Vice Chairperson of India Today group telling how before 2014, a certain political party pulled out all its ministers hours before the conclave because they didn’t like the questions… pic.twitter.com/0jYbyIk7gz
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) March 18, 2023
India Today Conclave was held on 17th and 18th March at Taj Palace hotel in New Delhi.
