Looking back, 2020: When citizens visibly showed their distrust of TV media

Recently, some farmers protesting against the Narendra Modi government’s farm laws at Singhu on Delhi’s border told Newslaundry that they no longer trusted “Godi Media”, derisively referring to mainstream media outlets, especially TV news channels, that are seen to propagandise for those in power. Instead of listening to their grievances and conveying them accurately, the farmers complained, “Godi Media” had demonised them, misrepresented their words, and even sought to portray them as “anti-national elements” and “Khalistani terrorists”.

Two weeks later, when some of the anguished farmers launched their own newspaper, Trolley Times, Ravish Kumar of NDTV described it as a “black day” for Indian journalism. It was confirmation, if any was needed, that the country’s ordinary citizens didn’t trust the media anymore, he suggested. To observers of the Indian media, this isn’t news. In the past year alone, there have been several instances of common folk expressing their distrust of the media, sometimes forcefully.

Here are a few such instances:

Farmer protests

On November 30, Zee News aired an “exclusive” video clip of a tractor at the Singhu protest carrying a sticker that read “Khalistan Zindabad”, or long live Khalistan, kickstarting a demonisation campaign against farmers, ascribing nefarious motives to them. The rest of the “Godi Media” quickly joined in.

In response, young farmers used social media to counter the media narrative, and even launched a newspaper. Some others printed and displayed posters that read, “Zee News, Republic, Aaj Tak. Don’t cover us. You are fake news. #GodiMedia.”

Several reporters have been heckled and chased away from the Singhu protest in the past few weeks. Vasu Manchanda, of Zee Punjabi, even had tea thrown at him, allegedly. Such is the distrust of “Godi Media” that even a seasoned journalist such as Rajdeep Sardesai felt compelled to cleanse his mic of the India Today group’s logo when he went to report on the protest at Singhu.

From Newslaundry’s archive:

‘Media has lost our trust’: Why protesting farmers are angry with ‘Godi media’

Farmer protests have some lessons for the national media

Guess who was India Today’s source for ‘success stories’ of farm laws? Prakash Javadekar

How Punjabi youth are using social media to back up farmer protests, and counter ‘Godi Media’

Shaheen Bagh

In January 2020, Sudhir Chaudhary of Zee News and Deepak Chaurasia of News Nation visited Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, which had emerged as the focal point of the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens. The largely Muslim women protesters wouldn’t to speak with them and shouted at them to go back. The protesters were angry that Chaudhary and Chaurasia, along with fellow “Godi Media” journalists, were nightly demonising them as “anti-nationals”, “terrorists”, and “Pakistanis”.

Chaurasia, a cameraperson in tow, returned to Shaheen Bagh on January 24, only to be heckled. It was cue for his channel to go to town decrying “rowdy elements” and “hooligans” who had prevented the anchor from recording at the site.

From Newslaundry’s archive:

NL Interview: Deepak Chaurasia on Shaheen Bagh, Sudhir Chaudhary, and what’s news

Tricks of trade: How Hindi TV news anchors are delegitimising citizenship law protests

Jamia crackdown

At the turn of the year, after police and paramilitary stormed Jamia Millia Islamia and brutalised the students, a protest was held outside the Delhi police headquarters by students and activists. When reporters from ABP News, India Today, Zee News, and News Nation went to cover the protest, they were heckled and denounced as “Godi Media”. “They manipulate our version,” a student protester later told Newslaundry. “They edit chunks and show them without context.”

In the run-up to the violent crackdown on Jamia as well as Aligarh Muslim University and after, TV channels such as Zee News, Aaj Tak, India Today, Times Now, and Republic TV had ran sustained demonisation campaign against the students, often denouncing them as “tukde tukde gang”, and seeking to deligitimise their protests against the citizenship law. It continued for months afterwards, in fact, with some of these channels running selective video footage to peddle conspiracy theories. While ABP News falsely suggested that some Jamia had attacked the police with stones, Sudhir Chaudhary of Zee News mocked a student for hiding his face with a handkerchief.

From Newslaundry’s archive:

Jamia shooting: Know the companies that brought you Republic TV’s misinformation campaign

Jamia Millia video: Eight questions India Today should answer

‘Stop slapping them, they’ll die’: An eyewitness account of police crackdown on AMU protest against citizenship law

Indian TV news channels relentlessly demonise protesters. But heckling their reporters isn’t right

JNU protests

At Jawaharlal Nehru University early this year, at least three journalists were booed with slogans such as “Godi Media Go Back” and even manhandled by students protesting a fee hike. Anupam Gautam of IANS TV claimed one student had tried to snatch away her camera. Reporters with Republic TV and Aaj Tak were allegedly heckled as well.

These channels had aired several shows and conducted “debates” where the students were described as “freeloaders” and even labelled “anti-nationals” and “urban Naxals”. The protest was against a steep hike in fees which the students argued would make JNU unaffordable for people from poor and marginalised communities.

From Newslaundry’s archive:

Lies, false equivalence, diversions, ad hominem attacks: That’s TV media’s spin on JNU violence

Why India Today’s JNU sting did more harm than good

JNU violence: Masked girl in viral picture of mob attack is Delhi University student Komal Sharma?

Will the Indian news TV correct course in 2021? If the coverage of the ongoing farmer protests is anything to go by, that appears very unlikely.