In the aftermath of the alleged suicide of journalist Pooja Tiwari, newspapers and TV channels reported on various aspects of the case: the immediate reasons that may have led her to take her life, the confusion on whether this was suicide or a murder, her personal life, relationships and so on.

(In all of this, ABP News deserves special mention for its tasteless exploitation of Tiwari’s death.)

Conflicting reports emerge about the possible reasons for Tiwari’s death. Bharat Gupta, a friend of Tiwari, and also a journalist, says the young reporter was under pressure because of her stormy relationship with Haryana police inspector Amit Vashisht, who is in police custody while his role is being probed.

A special investigation team has been ordered to probe the circumstances of Tiwari’s death, but in the din of speculations, let’s not forget Tiwari was first and foremost a journalist. Unfortunately, none of the reports so far have dwelled on Tiwari’s last ‘big’ story. In the way it was mishandled may lie some of the anxieties that plagued the journalist in the weeks preceding her death.

On April 20 – less than a fortnight before her death – Tiwari wrote an email to some of her friends and colleagues with the subject: “NEED JUSTICE”. The email talks at length about her sting operation on a so-called doctor in Faridabad who allegedly facilitated Medical Termination of Pregnancy, or MTP.

Tiwari explained how the sting was conducted with due permission from her superiors and how she made every effort to give the people she was doing a story on a chance to respond. The lengthy email betrays a sense of helplessness, even as she rubbished allegations of extortion that had been levelled on her following the publication of the sting.

“9 साल के मेरे कैरियर में ऐसी कभी कोई बात नहीं हुईं हैं और न ही मैंने आज तक किसी भी व्यक्ति से कोई नाजायज़ तौर पर पैसा लिया हैं। आज आप लोगों के stand की ज़रूरत हैं। कृपया मेरा साथ दे।”

(“In my nine-year career, I have never been involved in any such activity, I have never taken money from anyone. I need you people to take a stand. Please lend me your support.”)

Fearless in Faridabad

Haseen Rahmani, a close friend of Tiwari and the one who got her the job with iamin.in — a hyperlocal web news platform that comes under Zee Digital Convergence Limited — said one only has to go through Tiwari’s stories on the Faridabad website to know more about her. “Most of my journalistic contacts in Faridabad were made because of her,” he said. “She was quite fearless and one of the few female reporters in Faridabad.” He said that she was interested in stories that highlighted issues like encroachment and corruption.

A former colleague of Tiwari who was reasonably high-up in the hierarchy of iamin.in echoed Rahmani’s sentiments: “She was a solid reporter. On the face of it, it’s tough for me to believe the extortion allegations.”

Most of Tiwari’s colleagues and friends Newslaundry spoke to stated she was too strong to kill herself over professional issues but also said that she had been tense following the registration of a first information report (FIR) against her for the sting and her suspension from iamin.

A ‘big’ story

Tiwari had an inkling that her exposé of a quack in Faridabad and illegal MTPs being conducted in a clinic would be big, especially given Haryana’s skewed sex ratio. She mentioned it to her journalist father almost a month ago and had hinted that the story would create a sensation.

Her father, Ravi Tiwari, is an Indore-based journalist with Free Press Journal. He said Pooja was always interested in “hard” stories and had left Indore because she felt her talent was wasted in the city. “She worked with Jagran Cityplus and later joined iamin,” he said. “She had told me about the sting and that she was working on. I had told her to be careful.”

According to Tiwari’s email to her colleagues, she had conducted a sting on the so-called doctor, Dinesh Singh, on March 9 after hearing from various sources that he administered MTPs without proper authorisation. According to the MTP Act, only registered medical practitioners can conduct abortions. Singh apparently was not one. Also, MTPs cannot be done in any private clinic. It can either be conducted in a government hospital or a government-approved clinic. This “clinic” apparently did not have the authorisation.

Tiwari wrote in her email that she had discussed the sting with her organisation and had sought the help of Anuj Mishra, a male friend who was also a journalist, albeit not with iamin. He was her partner in the sting. This, too, she states in her email was known to her organisation.

The sting report — which was published on April 1 and still sits on the iamin Faridabad website — makes a series of allegations and is not exactly a watertight investigative story.

It states that Singh names two other doctors – Dr Raman Kakkar and Dr Archana Goel – who were allegedly part of his MTP racket. However, the accompanying videos with the report don’t show him making such claims. In sensitive reports such as these, a standard practice is to protect the reporter from any legal harm by sprinkling the copy with “allegedly”. This seems to be missing from the report, which makes sweeping statements without furnishing adequate proof and leaves Tiwari extremely vulnerable to legal action. The report does not crosscheck many of the claims made by Singh. In short, the report highlights the glaring editorial oversight at iamin.

Goel filed an FIR against Tiwari and Anuj Mishra – the male journalist accompanying her — on April 8, accusing them of extortion and blackmail. The FIR, which is still being investigated by the police, became grounds for iamin to suspend Tiwari.

‘She expected solidarity from the journalist fraternity’

Iamin is a reporter-led web platform that was established in 2015, and is part of the Zee Digital Convergence Limited. The platform caters to hyperlocal news in more than 30 locations in India. Its reporters are expected to file about 40 reports a month on local civic issues, staying away from political and crime beats. It isn’t clear why the editors at Faridabad’s iamin commissioned a sting, and if they had tried getting the story by other means.

Newslaundry sent a detailed questionnaire to Zee Digital HR Head Albino Mascarenhas and iamin’s Editor Suman Nag on the specifics of the sting. We have not yet received a response. The story will be updated if and when they choose to respond.

iamin released a statement soon after the incident saying that it put Tiwari under suspension after “allegations were made against her, as part of the standard operating process for the company to be able to carry out the enquiry with fairness”.

However, this does not answer several questions regarding the conduct of iamin’s editors. A news organisation that tells an employee to conduct a sting operation must be aware of the potential consequences. Stings operate within a shadowy space between legal and illegal. Consequently, the chances of being slapped with FIRs and/or notices is extremely high when you opt for a sting. Had the editors not expected a legal backlash from the subjects of Tiwari’s sting? That would be terribly naive.

A journalist who has done stings for a prominent magazine said on condition of anonymity that usually after a sting is recorded, editors send the complete footage for legal vetting. Speaking on Tiwari’s case, he said, “Suspension of a reporter on the grounds of an FIR is uncommon. What [iamin] DNA has done is sad,” he said.

Ostensibly, iamin seems to be standing by the report since the website still features the sting without an update or a correction. Yet the reporter was suspended. If this was keeping in line with company policy, remember that editors Sudhir Chaudhary and Samir Ahluwalia were not suspended after they were arrested on charges of extortion back in 2012. It is unclear, then, why it chose to suspend Tiwari. It is also not clear if iamin sent the sting for legal vetting.

The details of Tiwari’s death will emerge as investigations into the case proceed. However, what can be safely said is that she found little support and mentoring in journalism – whether it was for pursuing a story or dealing with its possible outcomes.

Tiwari’s cousin Pranesh Shukla who met her in April, a few weeks before her death, said, “She was disturbed with the lack of support from Zee, especially when the sting was done keeping her higher-ups in the loop. She expected some sort of solidarity from the journalist fraternity, but it did not happen.”

Undercover journalism has long been a powerful tool to expose corrupt practices, but Tiwari’s case illustrates how it can backfire for the organisation and the reporter when it is not accompanied by the rigour of traditional journalism. Tiwari perhaps had a strong lead in the story of doctors conducting illegal MTPs. If she had got the editorial backing she deserved from her organisation in pursuing the story, it would not have led to the agony that she and no doubt some of her colleagues have had to undergo over the past month.