On the night of 4th November 2022, Republic TV took to Twitter to lash out at Indian Express after they published an editorial that condemned the arrest of Arnab Goswami under the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government two years ago. In The Indian Express editorial, it was written that the “arrest spectacle” of Arnab Goswami was a message to independent media by the then government.
Republic TV tweeted a snippet of that article saying, “Interesting that @IndianExpress has ‘condemned’ action against our Editor-in-Chief 2 years after Uddhav’s govt arrested him as part of the biggest conspiracy against the media. Ironic that the same portal ran stories with blanket source-based quotes from Param Bir’s cops. Has @IndianExpress forgotten it was the one publishing screaming headlines of all fabrications of Uddhav govt against the Republic & our Editor-in-Chief? Standing up for freedom of the press can’t be an occasional, convenient & selective cause, as it’s become for Lutyens Media”.
Republic TV then tweeted reminding Indian Express that while they try to condemn the high handedness of the then Maha Aghadi government against Arnab Goswami and Republic TV staff, they had almost justified the arrest of the editor-in-chief by publishing an article that claimed that the arrest was the first step to justice for the Anvay Naik family.
“We even had to point out to @IndianExpress with a legal notice how they acted as judge, jury & executioner in breach of journalistic ethics & absolute facts while reporting the TRP case. Hypocrisy on press freedom is the embedded rot in Indian media now & calls for introspection. While the truth triumphed in that case, and in every case, a section of the Indian media must do some soul-searching on their role in being the true Fourth Pillar of Indian Democracy– irrespective of ideologies, political views and their notions of what is ‘liberal'”, said Republic TV further.
While Republic TV lashed out at Indian Express, it is pertinent to note that the publication only tangentially condemned the arrest of Arnab Goswami because they had to defend The Wire against the recent raids carried out at the premises of its founding editors and staffer, after they published a fabricated story recently.
The Indian Express essentially says that the raids against The Wire are an intimidatory tactic used to silence independent media. “These are challenging times for the independent press, their work an inalienable part of the citizen’s fundamental right to freedom of expression and the right to know. Across the world, even and especially in settled democracies, fidelity to Constitutional compacts is tested by the weight of popular and populist movements. India is no exception. Governments both at the Centre and in many states have often shown a striking disregard for press freedom”, the IE says. They then start by condemning the arrest of Arnab Goswami simply to justify their tropes in the case of The Wire.
“The police breached an important red line when it entered The Wire‘s newsroom, and seized the electronic devices used by its staffers. In a democracy, a newsroom’s exchanges with the world, many of which are and must remain confidential, the back and forth of honest journalistic practice, need protection. In its effort to distance itself from its own story, The Wire, which to its credit, most recently brought Pegasus to light, breached an important line too. It did not do its job, it blamed everything on a colleague, and, on record, invited the police and the powers in — playing perfectly to the latter’s script”, says IE further.
Interestingly, while calling out The Wire for ‘abdication of responsibility”, the purpose of the editorial by Indian Express was to cast aspersions on the raids against The Wire by insinuating that it was an action to stifle their free speech. They spoke about how their journalistic practice requires “protection”.
However, the Indian Express fails to mention some basic facts. The raids were not for defamation as per some leftist ‘intellectuals’ but for consistently indulging in forgery, cheating, fraud, fabrication, and criminal conspiracy. In fact, there is no civil defamation case against The Wire, Varadarajan, and others involved in the case. They face a criminal case for forgery, fabrication, and hatching a criminal conspiracy. These are serious sections under the IPC and clearly, there has to be an investigation into the source of the fabrication that was perpetuated by The Wire.
It is, therefore, disingenuous of The Indian Express to use the arrest of Arnab Goswami in an attempt to shield The Wire from legitimate and legal police action.
Legal notice by Arnab Goswami to Indian Express
In January 2021, Republic TV had serviced Indian Express with a legal notice asking them to take down their defamatory article. “We are constrained to issue this notice in view of your false news report mischievously titled, “Arnab Goswami paid me $12,000 and Rs 40 lakh to fix ratings: Partho Dasgupta” published and reported on 25 January 2021 in the Indian Express, digital and print media, and other social media platforms. The news report is a part of a mala fide, vicious and vexatious campaign to tarnish the reputation of our client”, the notice had said.
The notice had said:
The news report has alleged that the former BARC CEO, Mr. Partho Dasgupta has stated:“I worked with my team to ensure manipulation of TRP ratings that made Republic TV get number 1 rating. This would have continued from 2017 to 2019. Towards this, in 2017 Arnab Goswami had personally met me at St Regis hotel, Lower Parel and given me 6000 dollars cash for my France and Switzerland family trip…also in 2019 Arnab Goswami had personally met me at St Regis and given me 6000 dollars for my Sweden and Denmark family trip. Also in 2017, Goswami had personally met me at ITC Parel hotel and given me Rs 20 lakh cash… also in 2018 and 2019… Goswami met me at ITC hotel Parel and gave me Rs 10 lakhs each time…”.
The very headline of your news report would mislead any reader into wrongly believing that, as a matter of fact, payments were made by our client, Mr. Goswami to Mr. Partho Dasgupta. Such a headline is squarely deliberate and mischievous. Furthermore, the news report then deliberately omits to mention that the above statement was extracted by the Mumbai police from Mr. Partho Dasgupta under coercion and duress, is inadmissible in law, and has already been denied by Mr. Dasgupta himself. The news report is a vile, hateful, malicious attempt by you and part of a severely prejudicial campaign engineered and implemented by the Indian Express against our clients and aimed at attempting to irreparably destroy their reputation as well as the reputation of the Republic Media network. Through your defamatory news report, you have spun a false narrative of prejudice against our clients in complete breach of ethics, morality, integrity and journalistic duties. The malicious intent is to further your own corporate/commercial interests by defaming our clients.
You have acted as a judge, jury and executioner in breach of all journalistic ethics and against the well-settled law. By concealing material facts, pronouncing our client guilty of TRP manipulation, even though the matter is pending investigation and is also sub judice, your assertions amount to criminal contempt of court and, it appears, that these are intended to further your own commercial and corporate interests through sensationalism at the cost of our clients’ reputation, and presumably to divert attention away from fact that the BARC audit report of July 2020 points towards the guilt of another channel. Your actions are aimed to discredit a senior journalist, run-down a legitimate and established media house and ensure unfair and undue personal gains in the process.
It is pertinent to note that recently, the CBI came out with its chargesheet in which it has categorically stated that Republic TV had not indulged in TRP manipulation.
Anvay Naik case and the arrest of Goswami
On 4th of November 2020, Mumbai police, led by Sachin Vaze (not in jail) had barged into the home of Arnab Goswami and arrested him in the Anvay Naik suicide case. What was interesting is that Arnab Goswami was suddenly arrested in a 2018 abetment to suicide case which was closed and re-opened only recently, unilaterally, without the consent of the court.
The case that the Maharashtra government had chosen as a hill to die on, was an abetment to suicide case from 2018 in which a closure report was filed by the very police that arrested Arnab Goswami for it. OpIndia had done a detailed story at the time detailing how Arnab Goswami was given a clean chit by the Mumbai Police when it had filed a closure report. The report can be read here.
