NL Interview with Ashish Khetan – Part 2

Click here to watch Part 1 of “NL Interviews: Ashish Khetan”.

The two Essar reports carried in Newslaundry that pertain to Tehelka and Ashish Khetan’s reportage.

The long arm of Essar: Did a paid news complaint registered with Press Council of India reach an Essar executive’s inbox?

How Essar tried to manage  the media

Manisha Pande’s response:

Since Ashish Khetan had specified that he would like to be interviewed by either Madhu Trehan or Abhinandan Sekhri, I was unable to respond to some of the specific grouses he had with my report on the Essar leaks. Mr Khetan, through the interview, repeatedly stresses on his assumption that the article on Essar managing to lay its hands on Press Council’s complaint was a plant coming from Prashant Bhushan. I would like to state categorically that I did not receive this email from Mr Bhushan and neither did I meet him for the story. I did speak to his associate for the story to get a confirmation on whether this email would form part of the ongoing public interest litigation. His quote is in the report.

On the question of the Yahoo story Mr Khetan mentions, the complainant, Ms Shrinjan Khosla, has said on record that she stands by her statement to me. Ms Khosla also adds, and again on record, that she stands by the merits of the complaint.