The T.V. Troll – Republic

Anti-nuclear activist S.P. Udayakumar has complained to the News Broadcasters Association and the Press Council of India against Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV; saying that the media house has been persistently harassing him and his family.

Since the establishment of Republic TV, the channel has been acting more like a troll than a media house. The main man, Mr. Goswami has been taking jibes at the opposition party’s leaders, reaffirming his loyalty to the Sangh Parivar. In a time where quality journalism is desperately needed, we have eminent journalists who would troll and harass to increase TRP. Arnab Goswami appeared on Republic TV alleging that Shashi Tharoor was hiding information about the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar and that the Congress government aided him in getting away with it. Far from being credible; Republic TV has been making ludicrous accusations against leaders of the opposition parties and other prominent activists.

In the latest case, the channel did a ‘sting operation’ on S.P. Udayakumar. The operation showed that the anti-nuke protests in Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu were funded by the Church with foreign donations.
Udayakumar has written a letter to the Press Council of India, refuting the allegations and complaining against Arnab Goswami and his journalists.

In the letter, he writes:

 ‘I write to bring your kind attention to the ongoing deceit and harassment of me and my family by Mr. Arnab Ranjan Goswami and a few of his colleagues such as Shweta and Sanjeev from Republic TV.

… Mr. Arnab Goswami and his team telecasted this as a so-called “sting operation” on me at 2 pm on June 20, 2017 in their republic TV and alleged that our struggle against the Kudankulam nuclear power project was funded by the Church with foreign donations. I took part in the very same panel discussion on Republic TV and clarified what had transpired. But Mr. Goswami was so abhorrent, abrasive and even abusive.

… In a desperate attempt to raise the TRP rate, the discredited Republic TV has been telecasting slanderous reports about me and spreading canards through social media. This kind of indecent and abusive behavior of an anchor and reporters is unacceptable in a democracy. The Republic TV and their reporters are crossing all limits and causing so much mental agony to me and my entire family.’

There is nothing substantial in the so-called sting operation done by Republic TV except that it reveals the channel’s trolling capabilities. Udayakaran also mentioned in his letter that the reporters insisted on making his teenage son speak on the issue. The level of journalism has fallen too low, even for Mr. Goswami.

‘Sting journalism is a lazy substitute to meticulous investigative reporting’ – opines A.R. Panneerselvan, Readers Editor, The Hindu. According to Panneerselvan, sting journalism is not investigative journalism. There was no verification of authenticity and factual accuracy by Republic TV on the ‘sting operation’.