Media vs media: Untangling Reporter TV’s story wars in Kerala

The reportage on a controversial case – related to illegal logging of trees from private properties reserved by the Kerala government in Muttil South village of Wayanad – has taken a curious turn.

Newly relaunched channel, Reporter TV, has gone on the defensive over the involvement of their management’s top brass in the alleged crime. This was after a flurry of follow-up stories on the incident by other news organisations. On July 25, Reporter TV, which has MV Nikesh Kumar as editor-in-chief, aired multiple news reports that questioned the narrative of reports broadcast by other channels including Asianet News, Mathrubhumi News and News18 Malayalam. 

Reporter TV was relaunched on July 1 this year with the same brand name under Reporter Broadcasting Corporation Private Ltd, a company registered in April. The channel was earlier under the management of Indo-Asian News Channel Private Ltd, which has Nikesh Kumar and his wife Rani Varughese as directors. In its new avatar, the channel has brothers Roji Augustine as chairman, Jose Kutty Augustine as vice-chairman, and Anto Augustine as managing director and managing editor. 

The three Augustine brothers are also the key accused in the Muttil tree felling case, related to the illegal chopping down of rosewood trees from assigned land, and were arrested in July 2021. But this was not the first time that they were facing a criminal case. Anto and Josekutty Augustine had earlier faced arrest in a case known as the Mango Phone scam in 2016 over complaints of financial fraud. 

The media in Kerala had widely reported these incidents even before their connections with the channel became publicly known. After the relaunch of the channel, social media conversations and online news reports questioned the involvement of the Augustine brothers in the channel management, which also revived interest in the tree-felling case. A senior journalist belonging to the 24 News had also faced allegations of helping the accused in the Muttil tree felling case.

News channels, especially Mathrubhumi News, News18 Malayalam and Asianet News, ran stories with testimonials from tribal people in Wayanad on how they were allegedly deceived by the Augustine brothers. Some of them claimed that the accused persons had convinced them about a government order sanctioning the tree felling, following which they sold their trees. The channels on Tuesday also reported that Roji Augustine had allegedly forged the signatures of villagers who had these rosewood trees in their patta land. 

Meanwhile, Reporter TV aired news reports, harping on the fact that the land in which the felling happened was not forest land, to counter the allegations to show that they had no substance. Most media reports and environmental activists campaigning against the illegal felling from the beginning were clear that the trees stood on patta land and not forest land and this didn’t make any difference as the trees were under ‘reserved’ category and could not be cut.

Things got murkier as Anto Augustine appeared on a primetime debate with MV Nikesh Kumar and raised serious allegations against the managing director of another channel. Anto alleged that the MD was also involved in illegal tree cutting in Wayanad for many years but no cases have been registered against him. 

Additionally, journalist Arunkumar had reported the illegal felling in 2021 for 24 News, another news channel. At the time, he had dramatically explained the alleged illegalities with the use of augmented reality by driving in a lorry named after infamous forest brigand Veerappan. This time however, as the consulting editor of Reporter TV, Arun anchored a programme where he was seen taking a stance allegedly favourable to the new channel management. 

The tree felling case

The illegal felling entered media limelight in February 2020, when the Kerala forest department seized 54 logs of rosewood worth Rs 60 lakh from a timber mill at Perumbavoor. The logs were seized based on a tip-off, and the officials found that it was transported without any documents by Roji Augustine. Soon, the department found that more than 100 rosewood trees worth Rs 8 crore across 42 sites within the Muttil South village were illegally axed. 

Rosewood is one of the nine ‘reserved’ trees under the Kerala Promotion of Tree Growth in Non-Forest Areas (Amendment) Act, 2007. Reserved trees refer to those that are protected by the government, which might include endangered species.

In the 1950s, the Kerala government had allotted land to tribals and farmers in Muttil south village for agriculture purposes. These lands had trees under the ‘reserved’ category. As per the act, the owners were not allowed to cut the above mentioned nine ‘reserved’ trees.

Confusion began in 2017 when eight species of trees were removed from the list of ‘reserved’ trees, as the patta landowners did not know which ones were legal to be felled. Finally, on March 20, 2020, a circular clarifying that all reserved trees, except sandalwood trees, are allowed to be chopped down by the owners of patta (private) land, was issued. After several cases were filed at the Kerala High Court opposing the circular, it was stayed.

The forest department had registered cases in this regard and other instances of illegal felling that happened across the state on the basis of the March 2020 government order. In October 2020, another government order was issued clarifying that farmers can cut down such trees and no special permission was required to end the ambiguities surrounding it. It was finally cancelled in January 2021.  

Recent media reports based on DNA analysis by the Kerala Forest Research Institute said trees as old as 574 years were felled from Muttil South village.

This report was republished from The News Minute as part of The News Minute-Newslaundry alliance. Read about our partnership here and become a TNM Member here.