Reporters Without Orders Ep 178: UP government ad spending and the Ken-Betwa link project

This week, host Basant Kumar is joined by the Wire reporter Dheeraj Mishra and Newslaundry’s Ayush Tiwari.

Dheeraj talks about his report on the Ken-Betwa link project in Bundelkhand. The project aims to solve the region’s prolonged issue of water scarcity.

Dheeraj explains that the problem lies with the government’s claim that the Ken river has surplus water at all – a claim that “isn’t backed up by any independent researcher or independent institute”. He also tells the panel that the project will require over 6,000 hectares of forest land, which will include the Panna tiger reserve.

Basant and Ayush talk about their report on the Adityanath government spending Rs 160 crore on advertisements on TV news channels between April 2020 and March 2021. Ayush expresses his gratitude to journalist Umashankar Dube, who had filed the RTI that revealed this information. He also says he was “surprised by the results”.

This and a lot more as they talk about what made news, what didn’t, and what shouldn’t have.

Tune in!

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Produced by Jude Weston, edited by Satish Kumar.