Reporters Without Orders Ep 252: The key reports, challenges in 2022

It’s a full-house this week as Ayush Tiwari and Basant Kumar host all the other Newslaundry reporters. 

Akanksha, Shiv and Prateek start the conversation by talking about the stories they feel were their most important this year. While Shiv mentions his pollution reportage from Haryana and Punjab, and his Gujarat poll reports, Akanksha talks about her stories on caste violence in  Rajasthan. "It was an eye-opener. It made me think if documenting these things is enough," she says.

Prateek follows up with his report on the Goa restaurant linked to Smriti Irani’s daughter and his interview with Disha Salian’s family. Tanishka talks about her experience in Mirzapur, documenting the struggles of small-town journalists.

After Alenjith talks about the difficulties of working as a Malayalam-speaking journalist in a Hindi setup, Aditi recalls how covering the Wire-Meta saga was the perfect way to start her Newslaundry journey, by combining “tech reporting and media critique”. Ashwine says he has discovered the most this year as a reporter.

Basant and Ayush wrap up the conversation with the stories they think polished their skills. Basant mentions the Ramdev series while Ayush cites his coverage on nepotism in India’s apex historical research body.

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

Tune in.

Watch the conversation.

Timecodes

00:00:00 - Introduction

00:02:51 - Punjab and Gujarat coverage by Shiv

00:10:31 - Rajasthan’s Caste violence

00:18:09 - Smriti Irani and Disha Salian reports

00:31:17 - Pawan Jaiswal’s death

00:35:37 - Caste based garveyards

00:47:26 - Wire vs Meta

00:53:08 - Kerala Protests

00:59:38 - Swaraj Show and NDTV debacle

01:10:26 - Yogi who has it all

01:17:03 - ICHR

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Understanding Caste

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Produced  by Tehreem Roshan, recorded by Anil Kumar, and edited by Saif Ali Ekram.