Newslaundry

Last updated

Newslaundry
Newslaundry logo new.svg
Available in2 languages
List of languages
English, Hindi
Headquarters Delhi,
India
Key people
URL newslaundry.com
Users 50,000+ paying subscribers (as of July 2024) [1]
Launched6 February 2012;12 years ago (2012-02-06)
Current statusActive

Newslaundry is an Indian media watchdog [2] that provides media critique, reportage and satirical commentary. [3] It was founded in 2012 by Abhinandan Sekhri, Madhu Trehan and Prashant Sareen, all of whom earlier worked in print or television journalism. [4] It was India's first subscription-driven website when launched, and since then other platforms have followed a similar model. [5] In contrast to news websites such as The Wire , The Quint , ThePrint or Scroll.in , Newslaundry solely relies on public subscriptions, instead of donations or advertisements, for revenue. [6]

Contents

History

Newslaundry does not rely on advertisement for its revenue, and claims to be solely reliant on subscriptions for their income. The subscriptions allows users access to all stories and podcasts, such as NL Hafta and Let's Talk About, interactions with the Newslaundry team and subscriber only events and discord server. [7] [8] [9]

In addition to ground reporting and satirical commentary, Newslaundry hosts many podcasts dedicated to politics, culture and entertainment such as the flagship current affairs podcast NL Hafta and Awful and Awesome. [10] [11] [12]

Newslaundry has developed shows such as Clothesline (hosted by Madhu Trehan, currently on hiatus), Ye Bhi Theek Hai (hosted by Kunal Kamra and Sanjay Rajoura), TV Newsance (hosted by Manisha Pande), Back in Time, and NL Tippani (hosted by Atul Chaurasia) – all of which either probe and critique the Indian media through satire or explore socio-political issues in depth. [13]

Awards

In 2015, executive editor Manisha Pande and Sandeep Pai reported on how politicians misuse the public sector undertakings in India. [14] Their work won the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award for investigative reporting. [15]

Lawsuits

BCCL defamation lawsuit

On 19 January 2021, the Bennett, Coleman, and Company Limited (BCCL), also commonly known as The Times Group, filed a ₹100 crore civil defamation suit against Newslaundry in the Bombay High Court. The suit alleged that Newslaundry had defamed the director of the BCCL Vineet Jain, as well as Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar, who are the editors of their news channel Times Now. It claimed that an episode of Newslaundry's TV Newsance uploaded on October 10, 2020, [16] which criticised the news channel for its coverage of the arrest of actress Rhea Chakraborty, was "beyond the realm of satire, parody or spoof" and "false, baseless and highly defamatory". It further also claimed that the video uploaded on their channel on 27 November 2020 titled Explained: How to rig TRP [17] defamed and maligned the images of Shivashankar and Kumar.

Newslaundry responded to this suit by claiming that the legal notices was an attempt to silence criticism [18] [19] [20] and also said that "no one including media should be above scrutiny". [21]

TV Today Group lawsuit

On 26 October 2021, the India Today Group who run the English channel India Today and Hindi channel Aaj Tak filed a ₹2,00,00,100 civil defamation suit against Newslaundry in the Delhi High Court. The group also claimed that Newslaundry was "piggybacking" on the network and violating its copyright and that Newslaundry has harmed the channel's reputation. [22]

The lawsuit sought to remove 34 articles published on the Newslaundry website and 65 videos on the portal's YouTube channel. Furthermore, the suite seeks to remove similar content from Newslaundry's social media on Facebook and Twitter. The group also struck their YouTube channel was with fifty three copyright strikes which led to five videos being taken down and their channel being frozen for a period of three weeks where Newslaundry was barred from uploading any new videos. [23]

In response to this, Newslaundry co-founder Abhinandan Sekhri in a statement made to Scroll.in claimed that the case was frivolous. He said:

"It is alarming that these [organisations] are considered the high priests of independent news, free speech and freedom of the press. Now we know why the press and media has come to this stage.... Because of people like the ones in the management of India Today who think that this is a sensible lawsuit. If I were to review a book and I took a paragraph from it, no one goes around accusing me of copyright infringement of the book, but if someone critiques these news channel...since they are not used to being critiqued, they suddenly say that it is copyright infringement.... When we are calling something out, we have to show what we are calling out." [23]

Newslaundry has contested that Section 52 of the Indian Copyright Act provides for six exceptions one of which is to criticise or review the original content, and hence claimed that this suit is frivolous as it falls outside the purview of copyright. [23] In another statement made to the Indian Express, Abhinandan Sekhri said:

"What is alarming to me is that these are the people who are supposed to stand up for a free press and freedom of speech. India Today, which prides itself as a self-congratulatory, fantastic news brand, if this is their understanding of free press and freedom of speech, it explains the dismal state of media." [24]

Sakal Group lawsuit

On 16 September 2020, the Sakal Media group filed a ₹65 crore defamation notice on Newslaundry for news reports they published and FIR is against the reporter as he used Sakal's trademark logo. Newslaundry published news on 11 June 2020 about employment terminations of employees in Sakal Times happened in May 2020, [25] later Sakal Media Group legal department cleared the FIR, filed on 16 September, was only against the reporter for Trademark Infringement in his story and not against Newslaundry. Further investigation is ongoing. [26]

Related Research Articles

Mass media in India consists of several different means of communication: television, radio, cinema, newspapers, magazines, and Internet-based websites/portals. Indian media was active since the late 18th century. The print media started in India as early as 1780. Radio broadcasting began in 1927. Today much of the media is controlled by large, corporations, which reap revenue from advertising, subscriptions, and sale of copyrighted material.

<i>Aaj Tak</i> Hindi news channel

Aaj Tak is a Hindi-language news channel owned by the TV Today Network, a part of the New Delhi-based media conglomerate Living Media group. Noted for reporting in favor of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, it has promoted disinformation on various occasions and has been fined for its communal reporting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prannoy Roy</span> Indian journalist and media personality

Prannoy Lal Roy is an Indian economist, chartered accountant, psephologist, journalist and author. He is the former executive co-chairperson of NDTV and is considered to be one of its co-founders, along with his wife Radhika Roy. Prannoy Roy is also credited for pioneering opinion polls in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Times Now</span> Indian English language news channel

Times Now is an English-language news channel in India owned and operated by The Times Group. The channel launched on 23 January 2006 in partnership with Reuters. Noted for reporting in favor of the ruling BJP, it has promoted disinformation on multiple occasions.

Asian News International (ANI) is an Indian news agency that offers syndicated multimedia news feed to news bureaus in India and elsewhere. The company was established by Prem Prakash in 1971 and, under the name TVNF, it soon became the first agency in India to syndicate video news. Drawing upon connections within the Indian government, ANI expanded greatly during the early 2000s. After a period of downturn, the company regained a monopoly position; as of 2019, it is the biggest television news agency in India. In 2018, it reported revenues of ₹68.23 crore and a net profit of ₹9.91 crore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zee News</span> News channel of Zee Media

Zee News is an Indian Hindi-language right-wing news channel owned by Subhash Chandra's Essel Group. It launched on 27 August 1999 and is the flagship channel of the Zee Media Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arnab Goswami</span> Indian journalist and television news anchor

Arnab Ranjan Goswami is an Indian news anchor and journalist. He is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Republic Media Network.

Radhika Roy is an Indian journalist who is the founder and former executive co-chairperson of NDTV. She was the managing director of the company between 1998 and 2011. The company started as a news production house and became the first independent news broadcaster in India. Roy began her career in journalism at The Indian Express and worked for a period of time at the India Today magazine before becoming the founder of NDTV.

<i>The Caravan</i> Indian monthly magazine

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sudhir Chaudhary (journalist)</span> Indian journalist

Sudhir Chaudhary is an Indian journalist. He is a consulting editor at the Hindi news channel Aaj Tak and hosts the show Black & White. He was formerly the editor-in-chief and CEO of Zee News, WION, Zee Business, Zee 24 Taas and hosted the prime-time show Daily News & Analysis (DNA) on Zee News.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ScoopWhoop</span> Indian internet media and news company

ScoopWhoop Media is an Indian digital media company based in New Delhi. It operates various online content verticals and serves as a news organisation featuring web series, documentaries and current affairs reporting with a focus on video production and primarily catering to adolescents and young adults. It also features other infotainment and entertainment content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sreenivasan Jain</span> Indian journalist

Sreenivasan Jain is an Indian journalist who worked for NDTV from 1995 - Jan 2023. He is currently an adjunct faculty at O.P. Jindal Global University He was one of the prominent faces of NDTV, and during his three-decade career with the news television, served as the anchor of NDTV’s popular programmes, like Reality Check,Truth vs Hype etc. He was also the channel's Group Editor. He was NDTV's Mumbai bureau chief from 2003 to 2008. He was also briefly Managing Editor of NDTV's business channel, Profit. He is also an Op-ed columnist for the Business Standard newspaper. An Op-ed column in The Hoot, an independent South Asian media watchdog, praised Jain's television coverage of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. Jain is the grandson of M A Sreenivasan, a minister in the Princely State of Mysore, and the son of Devaki Jain and Lakshmi Chand Jain. On January 28, 2023, Sreenivasan Jain announced that he is quitting the channel after a nearly three-decade-long career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rahul Shivshankar</span> Indian journalist and television news anchor

Rahul Shivshankar is an indian journalist and an Indian TV anchor who worked as the editor-in-chief at Times Now. Before joining Times Now, Shivshankar worked in print and TV journalism. He has anchored five shows and has served as the Senior News Editor at Times Now (2005). Shivshankar worked very briefly with Headlines Today as the executive editor. He hosts the debate show India Upfront. He recently moved to CNN-News18

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Republic TV</span> Indian English language news channel

Republic TV is an Indian right-wing conservative English-language news channel, launched on 6 May 2017, operated and owned by Republic Media Network co-founded by Arnab Goswami and Rajeev Chandrasekhar. It headquarters are in Mumbai, India. Republic Media Network consists 3 other channels, Republic Bharat, Republic Bangla, Republic Kannada. It has been criticised for reporting in favor of the ruling BJP and for spreading disinformation on multiple occasions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abhinandan Sekhri</span> Indian journalist

Abhinandan Sekhri is the co-founder and CEO of Newslaundry, a media critique, news and current affairs website.

<i>The Wire</i> (India) Indian news website

The Wire is an Indian nonprofit news and opinion website. It was founded in 2015 by Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia, and M. K. Venu. It counts among the news outlets that are independent of the Indian government, and has been subject to several defamation suits by businessmen and politicians.

Zee Hindustan is an Indian Hindi-language television news channel, owned by Zee Media. It was first launched as Zee News Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh in 2006 and in 2013, it was rebranded as Zee Sangam. In 2016, the channel was again rebranded as India 24×7, and in 2017 as Zee Hindustan, under the leadership of the then-CEO of Zee Media's regional news division, Jagdish Chandra.

Scroll.in, simply referred to as Scroll, is an Indian digital news publication. Founded in 2014, it is owned by SCSN Pvt Ltd. The website is divided into English and Hindi language editions, each managed by separate editorial teams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zee Media Corporation</span> Indian news broadcasting company, headquartered in Mumbai

Zee Media Corporation Limited is a news broadcasting company based in Mumbai, India. The company is engaged mainly in the business of broadcasting news and current affairs, and regional entertainment up-linked from India via satellite television channels.

Godi media (Hindi pronunciation:[ɡoːdiː]; lit. 'media sitting on lap'; idiomatic equivalent: 'lapdog media'; is a term coined and popularised by veteran Indian journalist Ravish Kumar for "sensationalist and biased Indian print and TV news media, which supports the ruling BJP-led NDA government ". The term is a pun on the name of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has become a common way to refer to television and other media that are perceived as "mouthpieces" of the leading party of the NDA, the Bharatiya Janata Party.

References

  1. ↑ Gupta, Neha (4 July 2024). "User-centric innovation drives subscriptions at Newslaundry". WAN-IFRA.
  2. ↑ References for the term:
  3. ↑ Upadhyay, Venkatesh (21 July 2013). "The third wave of digital news". Livemint. Archived from the original on 16 January 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  4. ↑ "Can the digital revolution save Indian journalism?". Columbia Journalism Review. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  5. ↑ Harlow, Summer; Chadha, Monica (26 April 2019). "Indian Entrepreneurial Journalism". Journalism Studies. 20 (6): 891–910. doi:10.1080/1461670X.2018.1463170. S2CID   150110223.
  6. ↑ Bansal, Shuchi (27 October 2016). "The big digital paywall question". mint. Archived from the original on 11 April 2020. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  7. ↑ "Welcome to Newslaundry. Sabki dhulai. You watch. We're watching". Newslaundry. Archived from the original on 4 June 2021. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
  8. ↑ "Depth and breadth: How news organisations navigate trade-offs around building trust in news". Archived from the original on 9 February 2022. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  9. ↑ Mashal, Mujib; Kumar, Hari (27 March 2021). "India's News Upstarts Challenged Modi. New Rules Could Tame Them" – via NYTimes.com.
  10. ↑ "Asia Society Staff Picks: Podcasts for the Quarantined Soul". Archived from the original on 9 February 2022. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  11. ↑ Bansal, Shuchi (27 October 2016). "The big digital paywall question". Livemint. Archived from the original on 11 April 2020. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  12. ↑ Venkataramakrishnan, Rohan. "Why the Indian podcasting industry needs more 'high-quality crap' in 2019". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 28 September 2020. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  13. ↑ "TV Today Network takes Newslaundry to court, seeks Rs 2 crore in damages". 26 October 2021. Archived from the original on 28 October 2021. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  14. ↑ "RNG Awards: Winners in Print, Television and Digital media". 6 November 2016. Archived from the original on 3 May 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  15. ↑ "Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards 2015: Full list of winners". 3 November 2016. Archived from the original on 24 November 2020. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  16. ↑ Toadies Banega Tu? | TV Newsance Episode: 107, archived from the original on 3 February 2021, retrieved 17 March 2021
  17. ↑ EXPLAINED: BARC's TV audience measurement system is rotten | NL Cheatsheet, archived from the original on 2 February 2021, retrieved 17 March 2021
  18. ↑ Scroll Staff. "Times Group files Rs 100-crore defamation case against 'Newslaundry' for videos on TV anchors". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 11 March 2021. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  19. ↑ "Times of India parent company sues media watchdog Newslaundry for $13.7 million". Committee to Protect Journalists. 29 January 2021. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  20. ↑ "Times Group sends notice to Newslaundry for Rs 100 crore, unfazed NL does a takedown of notice". The News Minute. 21 December 2020. Archived from the original on 22 December 2020. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  21. ↑ Hakim, Sharmeen (9 February 2021). "'No One Including Media Should Be Above Scrutiny': Newslaundry Responds to Times Group's Rs 100 Cr Defamation Suit". livelaw.in. Archived from the original on 5 June 2021. Retrieved 5 June 2021.
  22. ↑ "TV Today network sues Newslaundry in defamation case, seeks Rs. 2 crore | Web News Observer". Web News Observer. 26 October 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  23. 1 2 3 Scroll Staff. "India Today Group files Rs 2 crore suit against 'Newslaundry' for defamation, copyright infringement". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 28 October 2021. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  24. ↑ "TV Today Network takes Newslaundry to court, seeks Rs 2 crore in damages". The Indian Express. 27 October 2021. Archived from the original on 28 October 2021. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  25. ↑ Goyal, Prateek. "'They wanted to get rid of us': Over 50 people laid off as Sakal Times closes down". Newslaundry. Archived from the original on 4 October 2023. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  26. ↑ "As Sakal Group files FIR against Newslaundry reporter, portal alleges 'personal vendetta'". The Indian Express. 4 November 2020. Archived from the original on 25 November 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
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