#MeToo: The Wire editors apologise for the latest episode of Vinod Dua’s Jan Gan Man ki Baat

On October 20, founding editors of The Wire issued a statement apologising for the manner in which an allegation of sexual harassment was trivialised in Episode 318 of journalist Vinod Dua’s programme Jan Gan Man Ki Baat: Rafale Deal and Rising Fuel Prices.

In their statement, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and MK Venu also stated that Dua’s show will now remain suspended till the external committee finishes its investigation into the matter.

The allegations against Dua by filmmaker Nishtha Jain will be investigated by a five-member committee. It will comprise former Supreme Court judge Aftab Alam, former judge of the Patna high court Justice Anjana Prakash, Prof Neera Chandhoke, former foreign secretary Sujatha Singh and Prof Patricia Uberoi.

The statement issued also clarifies The Wire’s stance on some of Dua’s utterances in the show: “It would be unfair and inaccurate to suggest this movement, in general, is about mudslinging. Such a view runs totally counter to The Wire’s editorial position. His programme went up without any editorial filter and was a major failure of oversight at our end. Some comments he made at the start of the programme about the MeToo movement as a diversion were edited out later, as soon as they were brought to our notice.”

On October 17, Newslaundry had reported on the contents of Dua’s show where the journalist had essentially dubbed #MeToo as unimportant in an election year. You can read the article here.