‘What’s your name?’ they demand to know. ‘Who are you speaking with? Are you delivering a package to Rhea?’
The Indian TV media’s coverage of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death is plumbing the depths of shamelessness by the day. Not content with turning the tragedy into a spectacle, using innuendo to trash a woman’s character, and cooking up conspiracy theories, they decided to prey on a common man.
A video has emerged of a gaggle of reporters badgering a deliveryman outside the Mumbai the building where Rhea Chakraborty, whom they have been unceasingly vilifying as the “controlling girlfriend” who pushed Rajput to suicide, lives.
The reporters demand to know the man’s name and whether he is making a delivery to Chakraborty’s flat. They follow him around as he speaks on his cellphone and drive him into a corner, all the while asking who he is on the line with, what he is carrying and for whom.
The video was posted on the YouTube channel National Reporter.
Watch.
The media must be free and fair, uninfluenced by corporate or state interests. That's why you, the public, need to pay to keep news free.
ContributeIf you, or someone you know, needs help to overcome suicidal thoughts, contact Fortis at +91 8376804102; AASRA at +91 98204 66726; The Samaritans, Mumbai at +91 84229 84528.
***
The media industry is in crisis. Journalists, more than ever, need your support. You can support independent media by paying to keep news free. Because when the public pays, the public is served and when the advertiser pays, the advertiser is served. Subscribe to Newslaundry today.
General elections are around the corner, and Newslaundry and The News Minute have ambitious plans together to focus on the issues that really matter to the voter. From political funding to battleground states, media coverage to 10 years of Modi, choose a project you would like to support and power our journalism.
Ground reportage is central to public interest journalism. Only readers like you can make it possible. Will you?