Sets a dangerous precedent: NBDA on I.N.D.I.A. alliance’s ban on 14 news anchors

With poll battles heating up for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the opposition I.N.D.I.A> alliance has released a list of 14 of the country’s top TV news anchors that it has blacklisted. Among these news anchors are Aman Chopra, Amish Devgan and Anand Narasimhan of News18; Chitra Tripathi and Sudhir Chaudhary of AajTak; Gaurav Sawant and Shiv Aroor of India Today; Prachi Parashar of India TV; Arnab Goswami of Republic Bharat; Rubika Liyaquat of Bharat 24; Navika Kumar and Sushant Sinha of Times Now Navbharat; Aditi Tyagi of Bharat Express; and Ashok Shrivastav of DD News.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter) Pawan Khera, Chairman, Media & Publicity Department, All India Congress Committee, stated that every evening from 5 pm onwards, some TV news channels spewed hate (“Nafrat ke dukaan sajayee jaati hai”) and added that the opposition alliance’s objective was a ‘hate-free India’, hence the alliance had decided not to participate in the shows and events of some TV news anchors.

This decision was taken at a virtual meeting of the I.N.D.I.A. Coordination Committee held yesterday (September 14, 2023) afternoon. Khera announced on X: 

This decision of the opposition alliance has been slammed by news broadcasters’ bodies. In a release issued, the News Broadcasters & Digital Association (NBDA) expressed its deep anguish and added that it was concerned by the decision taken by the I.N.D.I.A. Media Committee not to send their representatives on the shows and events hosted by certain journalists/ anchors. “The decision taken by the I.N.D.I.A Media Committee sets a dangerous precedent,” NBDA warned.

“The ban on representatives of the opposition alliance from participating in TV news shows anchored by some of India’s top TV news personalities goes against the ethos of democracy. It betokens intolerance and imperils press freedom,” it further stated.

NBDA added, “The opposition alliance claims to be the champion of pluralism and a free press, but its decision betrays callous disregard for democracy’s most fundamental tenet - the inalienable right to openly express ideas and opinions.”

It lamented that the boycott of certain journalists/ anchors takes the nation back to the Emergency era, when “the press was gagged, and independent opinions and voices were crushed”.

The NBDA urged the opposition alliance to withdraw its decision of boycotting certain journalists and anchors as such a decision would amount to browbeating journalists and stifling freedom of speech and expression of the media.