“I and my team are ready to pay a price or face any consequences, to keep fulfilling our Dharma towards our readers and viewers,” Chandra said.
He said governments exert pressure on media through advertising influence or use of state machinery to threaten so that the press can be prevented from publishing factual information.
“There are structured attempts by them to align the media in order to achieve their agenda. Unfortunately, many of the news channels, newspapers, social media and digital platforms have started accepting the pressure as part of life, instead of resisting or voicing out their disagreement,” said Chandra. “This is one reason why India ranks 159th out of 180 in terms of press freedom. The natural blame gets inclined towards the Government, but the media itself is equally responsible,” he added.
He said Zee Media’s flagship channel Zee News, recently faced an ‘alarming incident of Governmental suppression of media’s independence.’As per Zee, on May 23, an interview of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was conducted by a senior journalist of Zee News. Zee said post the interview, the independent editorial team at Zee Media decided not to telecast it, keeping in mind some ‘objectionable content’ in the interaction. Some portions of the interview were telecasted as well but the spokesperson of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) kept insisting that Zee News must publish the entire interview else it will face consequences like withdrawal of advertising (which was substantial on a monthly basis), as per the company’s account of the events.
“I wondered, what else will they do to penalise us and prosecute our freedom. I discovered soon that the Government of Punjab forced a black out across the state, leveraging a monopoly of a particular Multiple System Operator (MSO),” said Chandra.
“The black out was forced, not only for Zee News, but also for Zee PHH and Zee Delhi NCR. The state government also extended the blackout of Zee Entertainment channels. To add further AAP withdrew all the spokespersons from participating in debates held by Zee Media’s news channels. Zee fought this battle independently and got the channels restored by seeking justice through a legal approach,” he added.
Chandra said the company’s response would have been the same had it been an issue with the central government.
“This is a real time and live example of political parties suppressing us as a fourth state. Today it is Zee, while tomorrow it can be any other news channel, news publication or platform,” he said.
