Amar Ujala Journalist Terminated For Questioning Editorial Stance

Amar Ujala, the Hindi national daily with millions of subscribers, has terminated the services of its journalist, Priyanshu Gupta after he questioned the role of the newspaper in peddling Hindutva agenda in exchange of money on the social media website Facebook. In a sting operation, news website Cobrapost had revealed that the marketing heads of Amar Ujala along with other media outlets, including India TV, Scoop Whoop and Punjab Keshari, were willing to serve the Hindutva agenda in the garb of spiritual programs to its readers and viewers.

Gupta, who was serving at the newspaper's Noida office for the last two years, in his post said that the credibility of the newspaper was seriously dented after the exposé and it must come up with a clarification to restore readers' faith. Gupta also alleged that the credibility of the newspaper, in particular, and media outlets, in general, is in question after they agreed to broadcast programs to polarise votes against minorities.

The Cobrapost sting further showed that senior functionaries of Amar Ujala were even ready to broadcast the speeches of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat to peddle the Hindutva agenda.

Talking to Newsclick, Gupta said that he was informed to leave the office on March 31 without assigning any reason. Gupta said, "I was surprised. My senior editors were happy with my work and there could be no reason that such a harsh decision was taken against me. I was preparing for the final test for permanent services at the offices."

"When I insisted that I should be told the reason for my termination, the human resources officials told me that my reporting head will talk to me. Since he was on leave, I tried to meet senior editors but nobody was ready to explain the reason," said Gupta.

The letter of training discontinuation, accessed by Newsclick, also fails to explain any reason. "With reference to your training memo 21/06/2016, this is to inform you that as per clause no. 12 of your training memo, your training period is being discontinued, with effect from 31/3/2018" stated the letter.

The Amar Ujala had not responded to the questions sent by Newsclick at the time of publishing this report. It will be updated if the newspaper comes up with any clarification.

Not a first instance

The termination of Priyanshu Gupta for questioning editorial stand is not the first instance. The pattern of muzzling the voices of journalists for questioning divisive agenda has become clear when the editor of DailyO, the media venture of India Today Group, was shown the door recently. Angshukanta Chakraborty, a political editor at DailyO, was asked to take down her critical tweet where she questioned the role of promoters in hiring anchors who have been spreading divisive agenda.

“Promoters turning a blind eye to hate-mongering, fake news spreading news anchors, editors, reporters and writers, or hiring them in the first place, must be tried in courts as hate speech enablers-profiteers. Must be boycotted socially by secular politicians & Industrialists,” Chakraborty had tweeted on February 4.

When the matter flared up, India Today Group said that Chakraborty's tweet was not in compliance with its Social Media policy. However, Chakraborty remained firm on her stand. She added that the tweet was completely in compliance with the Social Media Policy.

“It was in compliance with social media policy, it was not ad hominem, no one was tagged, it was not abusive, and moreover, it was written by someone who makes a living by making political commentary,” Scroll quoted Chakraborty as saying.

Prior to Chakraborty, senior producer of Zee News Vishwa Deepak had claimed that channel allegedly broadcasted videos of pro-Pakistan slogans which were not actually raised. The resignation letter of Deepak to Zee News suggested that videos with wrong interpretation and captions were repeatedly played to spread the malice against student leaders like Kanhaiya Kumar.

“The video which had no “Pakistan Zindabad” slogans in it, we played repeatedly to spread madness. How did we establish that Kanhaiya and his associates were chanting slogans when all we heard were voices coming from the darkness. Our biases made us hear Bhartiya Court Zindabad as Pakistan Zindabad,” stated his letter.