Reporters Without Orders Ep 272: Law intern labelled ‘PFI agent’, Karnataka poll

This week, host Tanishka Sodhi is joined by Newslaundry’s Prateek Goyal and Sumedha Mittal. 

The discussion begins with Prateek’s story on Sonu Mansuri, a 21-year-old law intern in Madhya Pradesh, who was accused of being a “PFI agent”  and spent 50 days in jail on cheating charges. 

Prateek recounts his interview with Sonu, in which she described her ordeal and opened up about the line of questioning during the interrogations. He delves into the timeline of events that led to her arrest and the impact of one-sided media coverage. 

“The media portrayed her as a ‘terrorist’, while all she was doing was her job as an intern and learning things,” Prateek says. He also spotlights how she was targeted because of her religious identity. 

The conversation then moves to Sumedha’s experience of reporting from poll-bound Karnataka and her understanding of electoral politics. She talks about the good and the bad of reporting on the high-stake elections in the southern state. “Language was the biggest hurdle,” she says, shedding light on how she overcame it. 

This and a lot more, tune in! 

Timecodes

00:00:00 - Introduction

00:01:30 - Sonu Mansuri’s story

00:10:50 - Karnataka election 2023

00:32:26 - Recommendations

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Produced by Tehreem Roshan, recorded by Anil Kumar, and edited by Umrav Singh.