Sohit Mishra with NDTV co-founder Prannoy Roy (twitter.com/sohitmishra99)
Journalist Sohit Mishra, NDTV”s face in Mumbai for the last seven years, quit the media house after allegedly being asked by the management to “create a ruckus” at a press conference held by senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the business capital, as reported by The Newslaundry.
“I have decided to leave NDTV after finding the journey difficult,” Mr. Mishra confirmed this in a YouTube video he posted on his social media platforms. “Now, things have started changing,” he said, adding that, “they talked about journalism and the Lakshman Rekha when they took over the channel, but it remained just words,” mentioning the takeover of NDTV by the Adani Group earlier this year.
“All those leaders who were once afraid of NDTV now give interviews to the channel,” alleged the journalist who is famous for his Covid crisis coverage and reporting on the formation of the Shinde government in Maharashtra.
“Dr. (Prannoy) Roy has never stopped anyone from reporting a story, thinking that he would be at the receiving end or the government would get annoyed by it,” he said.
“This is a difficult decision,” he said while adding that he would reveal the reason later. Sohit and the media house haven”t confirmed the alleged incident yet.
The alleged incident that led to Sohit”s resignation happened before Congress leader Rahul Gandhi”s press conference held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Mumbai”s Bandra Kurla Complex, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Opposition alliance INDIA.
According to The Newslaundry report, the management wanted to set a narrative by creating a ruckus during Mr. Gandhi”s press conference, as he had been attacking the government over allegations against industrialist Gautam Adani.
“I don”t understand why the Prime Minister is not forcing an investigation. Why is he quiet? Why doesn”t he say that he is going to make sure that this issue is investigated and the people who are responsible are put behind bars? This is raising a very serious question on the Indian Prime Minister just before the G20 leaders come here,” Rahul Gandhi had said in the press conference. This was right after the conglomerate was accused of stock manipulation by a recent investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which was published by The Guardian and the Financial Times.
Before this, after Billionaire Gautam Adani-helmed AMG Media Networks took over NDTV, many senior journalists and officials resigned from the New Delhi-based media house, including former CEO and group president Suparna Singh, famous Hindi journalist and Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Ravish Kumar, group editor Sreenivasan Jain, senior English journalist and executive editor Nidhi Razdan, senior editor Sarah Jacob, CTO Kawaljit Singh Bedi, and managing editor Chetan Bhattacharya.
