Full disclosure: The writer is a former journalist who has worked with Times Now and Headlines Today between 2004 and 2013. He currently works for Times Group-run Radio Mirchi as Associate Vice-President.

A week after an article in Hindustan Times claimed that Arnab Goswami would be provided Y-category security by the government, the editor-in-chief of Times Now has completely trashed the story.

On October 16, HT claimed that owing to threats from “Pakistan-based terrorist groups”, Goswami would get “round-the-clock protection from around 20 guards, including two personal security officers for close proximity security.”

The article was pegged on a single quote from an anonymous home ministry official who claimed “Goswami is being given security on the basis of a threat-perception analysis by the IB. We will go by the IB recommendation. He faces threats from Pakistan-based terrorist groups due to his comments against them on Times Now.” (There were no follow-up reports to substantiate this story or clarifications issued by the paper.)   

However, a week after this security cover was to be given, Arnab Goswami has broken his silence on the matter. “If I am walking around with 20 guards, can those who wrote about this, please find them for me!” says the Newshour anchor, visibly surprised at how this news went viral on digital media. Setting the record straight, Goswami claims that he was “never offered, never accepted, don’t even know details of Y-category security till now [laughs].”

But why wait for such a long time before clearing the air?

Goswami admits that he doesn’t feel the need to respond to every article written on him, but expressed shock that “none of the people who wrote and analysed this news at length, bothered to check the facts – it was all assumed to be true!”

In fact what seems to have prompted Goswami to respond this time wasn’t the article itself, but the reams of analysis regurgitated on the back of the assumption that this Y-category security had been given to him and how this had transformed him from being an Anti #VVIPRacism champion to a VIP journalist himself.

“Where will I accommodate these 20 security people?” asks Arnab with a tinge of sarcasm in his voice, “I don’t even have that kind of space on my news desk.”

If Goswami is indeed right and scores of articles and op-eds were written on this issue — without any cross-verification from the Home Ministry, the Intelligence Bureau or the Times Group, then it signals a credibility crisis in media circles – even among those journalists who comment on the media.

Surely, a newspaper would not imagine a story out of nowhere. Was this, then, a case of poor sourcing? Or did the ministry backtrack on its plans of providing Goswami with security owing to the backlash the news received?

Home Ministry spokesperson KS Dhatwalia told Newslaundry that no such order pertaining to Goswami’s Y-category security was ever passed by the ministry. He did not wish to comment on whether the ministry received a proposal from the Intelligence Bureau to give Goswami Y-category security.

Newslaundry also reached out to Hindustan Times Editor-in-Chief Bobby Ghosh for his comments on Goswami dissing the story. We will update the piece as and when we receive a response.  

It would be interesting to see if Hindustan Times now stands by its story and provides further details on this ‘exclusive’ story or has to backtrack on the matter.

With inputs from Shruti Menon