Godi media

At least we're not Pakistan Indian Politics

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Persons of interest

Bal Thackeray Narendra Modi Yogi Adityanath B. R. Ambedkar Mahatma Gandhi Chidambaram Subramaniam v - t - e

Godi Media (lit. “media sitting on lap”) AKA MainStreamModia is a pejorative term coined by NDTV’s Ravish Kumar used to refer to media houses that "are no longer watchdogs but lapdogs of the government".

Context

Under Modi's reign, India has fallen on the World Press Freedom Index, currently ranking at 150 position from 180 countries.

The decline of free media in India has been one of the core reasons for democratic backsliding in India, being a fundamental instrument in effective control of the Indian population. Of course, there are many things wrong with the NDA-led government, but the only way they have gotten away with it is through their relationship with the media.

Violence

It's not easy being a journalist in India, with journalists being chained to their beds, stripped naked, burnt alive, etc. To avoid such a price, many news organisations undergo self-censorship; retracting and stashing pieces critical of the government even before the government takes action on it. Of course, the situation of journalists being attacked for exposing inconvenient truths isn't unique to India. However, the responses to such incidents differ greatly.

Government Control

What differentiates the Indian media climate from the rest of the world, is that Indian media relies mostly on advertisements as their source of income instead of subscriptions. This has both advantages and disadvantages; the advantage being that everyone gets access to newspapers and news channels for very cheap and sometimes even free, allowing even poor people to be well informed. The disadvantage comes from the fact that the primary advertiser in India is the government, through its Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP).

Through the government's position of being the biggest advertising agency in India, it systematically encourages the creation of news channels that are intentionally uncritical of the Union government, and overtly anti-minority and anti-opposition, to maintain their profits through advertising. Under the BJP, government spending on media advertising has increased, especially in the TV and electronic media sector. Due to the BJP's powerful position of basically literally ruling over India, no other political party has come even close to the amount that BJP spends, not to mention that most of the advertisements having no regard for accuracy.

Simply providing incentives for the media to bootlick the government was never enough for the saffronisation and the de-democratisation of India; one also needs to deincentivise whatever BJP finds uncomfortable. The DAVP can also bar publications from receiving advertisement money for being 'inaccurate' or 'disrespectful'. Even the granting of a license depends on approval from the government, through the India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B).

Of course, the potential for abuse in India's media situation was ripe, and BJP is not one to leave such easy fruit to be un-reaped;

• Calling them "dangerous for democracy," on November 2016, I&B put a blackout on two TV news channels, NDTV India, and News Time Assam.
• MediaOne, a news channel from Kerala, was banned by the I&B on March 2020 from running, along with another news channel Asianet News, citing "security concerns;" for what it called "biased" reporting of the 2020 Delhi riots. The I&B directly stated: "Channel’s reporting on Delhi violence seems to be biased as it is deliberately focusing on the vandalism of CAA supporters. It also questions RSS and alleges Delhi Police inaction. Channel seems to be critical towards Delhi Police and RSS."

This is not all, nor is it enough; to fill the vacuum left by them, propaganda outlets are to be funded, proliferated, and aggrandised. This effect is further amplified by the fact that most of Indian media is owned and run by a few, very powerful conglomerates. The state owned All India Radio owns all news radio stations as well.

The Silent PM

Narendra Modi is the only PM of India who has not given a single press conference in his tenure. In his last, proper interview, he was questioned by veteran journalist Karan Thapar, and since then he has not given a single unscripted interview.

In a recent News Nation interview, Modi was literally found to be reading the answers from a paper he held during the interview's broadcast on national television, verbatim.

Laws

Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (Sedition)

A relic from the brutal British era history of the Indian subcontinent, which was thoroughly exploited in the Modi era as it shows a rise in sedition cases.

The Swedish institute V-Dem calls India "as autocratic as Pakistan," citing usage of "laws on sedition, defamation, and counterterrorism to silence critics. For example, over 7,000 people have been charged with sedition after the BJP assumed power."

In May 2022, the law was temporarily put on hold for "re-examination" by the Supreme Court of India, citing evidence of misuse. An applaudable decision, indeed. However, this has not actually overturned the sedition law, only temporarily suspended it. Further, laws such as the Public Safety Act, National Security Act, as well as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act are much, much more ripe for abuse and are arguably more effective in the harassment of independent journalists, so perhaps it is no wonder that the BJP has no problem with it gone.

In 2023, new laws were made to replace it.

Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety) Rules, 2017

Farmer's protests in Delhi.

This law gives the Union and state governments the power to suspend mobile and internet services in any area. The reasons given for the suspension are reviewed by a "competent authority" within 24 hours. This law has been exploited especially in Kashmir, where internet access has been blocked for months. It has also been used in the Farmer protests in Delhi and Haryana.

Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2019

Save RTI Protests.

The Right to Information Act (2005) has been vital in questioning the intents and motives of the government. It allows any citizen of India to request any information from the government.

The NDA led government's war against the RTI Act has been going on since much before the recent amendment. There has been a huge delay in responding to the appeals, largely due to the fact that since Narendra Modi's arrival, the Central Informational Commission has been going without a head for several months over 6 years.

Many people who are known as "RTI Activists" have been socially ostracised, jailed, and mob lynched; many of which continue to be unreported and forgotten by the media.

On October 24th, 2019, the BJP government made an amendment to the RTI Act, which has been given the "short title" of "The Right to Information (Term of Office, Salaries, Allowances and Other Terms and Conditions of Service of Chief Information Commissioner, Information Commissioners in the Central Information Commission, State Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioners in the State Information Commission) Rules, 2019." Yeesh.

In a nutshell, as one could infer from the the amendment's title itself, the law gives the Union government powers to arbitrarily set the salaries, allowances, and service conditions of information commissioners. Under Rule 21, it also gives the Union binding powers to decide on anything that they forgot to mention in the law, and under Rule 23, the Union government may interpret these rules as they please.

The original act also set the limit of terms of all information commissioners at 5 years. Now, the appointment will be "for such term as may be prescribed by the Central Government". The new CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) director was hired this way.

Of course, it is really hard to prove BJP’s “corruption-free” track record as compared to Congress, when the vital evidence required to do so never reaches the light of the media.

New Media Policy, 2020

See the main article on this topic: Narendra Modi § Abrogation of Article 370: Stripping Kashmir of autonomy

A J&K exclusive law.

IT Rules Amendment Act

An Act that gives full control of social media to the government.^{[citation needed]}

Certain media companies hesitated to comply at first, but with threats of being banned, and being driven solely on profit, it was inevitable.^{[citation needed]}

Telecommunications Bill, 2023

This bill was passed following an attack on the Indian parliament by two unemployed intruders who threw two tear gas cannisters in parliament, after which the BJP government suspended over 90 (!) opposition members of the parliament for "unruly conduct in parliament" raising slogans over the security breach. Some of the opposition members suspended for that reason weren't even present in the parliament at that time! And so, most opposition members weren't even able to debate or vote against the bill in parliament since they were suspended, and the bill was passed in both houses.

The law allows the government to take control of any telecommunications network, intercept any message by any person, and force any person to disclose these messages to an officer, as well as make arrests and daily fines. The law is vague enough that it can apply over any messaging service.

Broadcast Bill, 2023

This bill was also passed following the biggest mass suspension of parliament in Indian history

Another law that allows the government to punish everyone who is communicating on the internet (termed "broadcasters") and gives power to "authorised officers" to raid and seize equipment from "broadcasters", thus allowing the government to take selective action against people with independent Youtube channels or even personalities sharing videos through Twitter.

Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Suraksha Sanhita, Sakshya Bills

he Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Bills are the replacement of the old colonial IPC, CrPC, and Evidence Act laws. The laws are vague enough to allow the police to arrest anyone for any reason.

Tax raids

The Modi government also utilises tax-raids as a method of intimidation, which makes Modi's opponents look financially corrupt, and thus non-credible and 'anti-India'. They also serve as a reliable tool for harassment of BJP's critics. [how they harass, take away important papers, computers etc.] Here is a brief list of ('leftist') media organisations which have been targeted by tax-raids:

• BBC (February 2023): After a few days the BBC aired a two-part documentary titled India: The Modi Question that highlighted Modi's involvement in the 2002 Gujarat riots which killed a thousand Muslims in his home state, Gujrat. The documentary was, of course, banned using emergency powers of the IT Rules
• Newsclick (February 2021): After having begun on 1:30AM, the tax raid on Newsclick took more than 113 hours to end and took place in 10 of their premises
• The Quint (October 2018):
• NDTV (June 2017): NDTV has remained perhaps the only TV news channel which does not feature screeching debates, shouting anchors, sensationalist headlines and the dramatic music that accompanies it, and most importantly, not blatant propaganda. It was the latter that lead to the tax raid. Or maybe CBI agents just really dislike boring, undramatic news. We don't know.
• Amnesty
• Newslaundry
• Congress: BJP's main opposition party.

As expected of BJP, the "corruption free" party, no tax raids were done for the large business magnates that were implicated in the Panama/Paradise papers.

Social Media, and WhatsApp University

Other forms of media are under attack too. The new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 gives the government to control social media (see above).

Media houses

There is also a bit of a funny side to BJP's saffronisation and destruction of free and independent media. The Great Indian Circus, AKA the "Godi media," makes even Fox News look progressive and relatively saner.

Zee news

"Will Putin-Biden accept Modi's final verdict?"

Everything is jihad!

Zee News, which is watched by 327 million viewers, is one of the most viewed news channels in India, infamous for being overtly Islamophobic and openly bigoted.

The owner of the news channel also has close ties with the BJP.^{[citation needed]}

They were among the first to remove their article exposing Amit Shah's assets.

DNA

It started off as a prime-time TV show on Zee News. It is anchored by Sudhir Chaudhary, infamous for his unrivalled ability to make the dumbest statements with the straightest faces.

WION

WION (World Is One News) is a news channel owned by Zee Media and serves as the multinational version of Zee News. It separates itself from other Indian news channels by not being completely batshit insane, but much more subtle with their still very pro-Hindutva bias.

In defense of Narendra Modi's feckless management of the COVID crisis, the government's primary line of defense has been the rhetoric of foreign media conspiring against India to defame the work of strong leaders like Modi. Of course, the government could not have made the population believe the grandeur dellusions of Modi's fascistic persecution complex without the help of the media.

Republic TV

RepublicTV "Debate" Template

“”I don't care, I don't give a damn for the due process of law! And I know many of you think I should not say this, they will say "oh Arnab has broken" quote-unquote "journalistic ethics," I don't give a damn for those journalistic ethics then, I don't give a damn.

—Arnab Goswami, on national TV

“”So what do they say to us? "Show the facts, the truth," right? Truth, truth, truth, truth... I say, everyone already has the truth, what difference would it make, if we told you another truth? What do you need? You need an opinion... I don't believe in anything other than opinion-based journalism.

—Arnab Goswami

RepublicTV is the brainchild of popular provocateur Arnab Goswami, the former Times Now debate arbiter, who is infamous for his screeching "debates" on national television.

Being an opportunist at heart, it is no wonder RepublicTV became one of the premier propaganda outlets for the BJP. Their reputation for the same forced Wikipedia to put RepublicTV on their deprecated sources list, disallowing anyone from using the site as a citation for anything important.

Among other Godi media outlets, he also had his fair share of SSR conspiracy theories. For entire weeks this was the only thing being talked about in his PrimeTime show.

“”There is no longer a shred of doubt, that Sushant did not kill himself! He was killed by overdose!

—Arnab Goswami on national TV, confidently stating his opinion that was later found to be completely unfounded by the Indian police.

Majority of his debates revolve around such conspiracies and the usual fearmongering. On topics such as health or education, debates are very very rarely held and many times not at all.

No wonder he is hailed as a national hero and Hindu saviour in far right social media.

In a rather embarrassing moment for Goswami, he claimed that his team had gathered intelligence and found out that Pakistan Army officials were staying over at Serena Hotel's 5th floor to apparently help the Taliban win over Panjshir valley. However, much to his chagrin, the the hotel only had 2 floors.

“”Go and check today [...] on the fifth floor of the Serena Hotel, I am telling you, please check, fifth floor of the Serena Hotel in Kabul, how many Pakistani army officers are [...] I can also maybe tell you what they ordered for dinner so don't question my intelligence sources. We've got all our aerial surveillance on you people.

His leaked chats with a government official shows information about Balakot airstrikes before it even happened.^{[citation needed]}

“”Arnab Goswami: On another note something big will happen [...] Dasgupta: Dawood? Arnab Goswami: No sir Pakistan. Something major will be done this time. Partho Dasgupta: Good. Partho Dasgupta: It’s good for big man in this season. Partho Dasgupta: He will sweep polls then. Partho Dasgupta: Strike? Or bigger Arnab Goswami: Bigger than a normal strike. And also on the same time something major on Kashmir. On Pakistan the government is confident of striking in a way that people will be elated. Exact words used.

News18

CNN-News18 is another news channel which is owned by Reliance, a multinational conglomerate with their fair share of controversies, that beats even #Zee News in its competition for communalism.

While COVID ravaged Uttar Pradesh, News18 argued that everything was fine and the fear mongering was only due to "western media bias" showcasing India in a bad light because they are jealous and scared of India's progress under Yogi Adityanath, and instead reported news of dengue in Delhi which was governed by Arvind Kejriwal, an opposition party leader. It’s worth noting that CNN-News18 has not done a single report on the 34 children who died in Uttar Pradesh^{[citation needed]} – the state where its news studio is located – from dengue and viral fever.

In Yogi Adityanath's 160 crore TV ad campaign in an year, News18 hit the jackpot.

It also self-censored its articles that exposed Amit Shah.

Firstpost

Given Reliance's relationships with the Modi government, Firstpost (which is also owned by Reliance) has participated in intensive self-censorship, removing any negative news about Amit Shah, Narendra Modi, or anything relating to the BJP.

Times Group

The Times Group is an Indian media conglomerate which host a wide spawn of media channels and newspapers, including the The Times of India newspaper, which boasts of the largest circulation of any English language newspaper in the world.

Times Now

Times Now was fomerly most popular because of its fervent news anchor Arnab Goswami, who later left the channel to launch his own shitfest, Godi media#Republic TV. It was only through Goswami's debut on Times Now, did he jumpstart his career. We do not believe we need to repeat that section of this article to get the point home that any news channel hiring him is not to be taken seriously.

After his leave, he was replaced by the much more milquetoast and somewhat inexperienced Rahul Shivshankar. Another agency involved in self-censorship.

Sudarshan News

Its hateful rhetoric got so bad that its chief editor, Suresh Chavhanke, was arrested by the police for inciting communal hatred (along with rape and intimidation charges).

NDTV

Formerly used to be famous for possibly being the only sane TV news channel, with its polite and non-ear-rape debates and anchors, it was bought out by the Adani group, also known as Modi's right hand man who grew his wealth under the Modi regime. After this, the lead chairman of the news channel, Ravish Kumar, left it. Since then, it has become another TV channel just like the rest.

External links

• Media Ownership Monitor, India

See also

• See the Wikipedia article on Godi media.