News Analysis India

Tag: Republic Media Network

  • Arnab chats row: Republic Media Network hits back at Congress, accuses it of peddling ‘falsehoods’

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Republic Media Network on Sunday hit out at the Congress over its allegations that the purported WhatsApp chats of Arnab Goswami point to breach of national security and violations of the Official Secrets Act, and claimed that the party was peddling “falsehoods”.

    In a statement, the Republic media group also accused rival TV channel Times Now of manipulating TRPs, suppressing facts and misleading the public on the alleged TRP scam.

    The statement comes after Times Network, under which Times Now operates, said it is contemplating “all possible legal actions” against Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) for its unacceptable and unpardonable” failure to act on complaints of large-scale manipulation of TRPs to favour Republic TV.

    ​ALSO READ | Congress holds protest in Maharashtra against Republic TV chief Arnab Goswami over purported chats

    Also, the Congress had on Friday demanded a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the purported WhatsApp chats of Goswami for breach of national security and violations of the Official Secrets Act and booking those involved.

    In the statement, the Republic Media Network said there has been collusion of corporate and political interests to target its Editor-in-Chief Goswami.

    The validity, veracity and genuineness of the purported WhatsApp chats are still to be tested in the courts of law, but even keeping that aside for a moment, there is not one line, suggestion or shred of evidence in the chats which contain any wrongdoing or TRP manipulation by the Republic Media Network, the statement said.

    ​ALSO READ | Arnab Whatsapp chats row: Leaking of official secret of military ops is treason, says AK Antony

    The Republic Media Network also called upon the Competition Commission of India to probe the existence of “collusion and cartelization” in the media industry “which is selectively targeting Goswami”.

    “The Congress which cannot get over its own infighting has peddled lies and falsehoods against us, accusing us of leaking official secrets, when the truth is that the possibility of airstrikes was a much-discussed topic in the public domain, much before the strikes actually took place,” it said.

    Last week, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had said providing official secret information to a journalist is a “criminal act” and both the giver and the receiver will have to go to jail.

    He was referring to the allegations that the reported chats showed Goswami being privy to the Balakot air strikes beforehand.

  • Maharashtra rights panel orders probe into complaint over arrests in TRP scam

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission (MSHRC) has asked its own investigation wing to probe the complaint which alleged that the arrest of Republic Media Network’s top officials Vikas Khanchandani and Ghyshaym Singh was “illegal and indiscriminate”.

    Khanchandani and Singh are currently out on bail.

    They had been arrested last month in connection with the alleged Television Rating Points (TRP) rigging scam.

    Following their arrest, one Aditya Mishra had approached the MSHRC, claiming the city police was falsely targeting the employees of Republic TV with a vendetta in mind.

    After hearing the complaint for over a month, the commission on Thursday reserved its order and said it was entrusting the matter to its own investigation wing for an “impartial” probe.

    The probe wing has been asked submit its report by March 10 to facilitate the commission in passing an appropriate judgement, it said.

    The police began probe into the alleged scam after ratings agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) filed a complaint through Hansa Research Agency about rigging of TRP by some channels.

    TRP, measured by recording viewership data at sample households, is crucial for attracting advertisers.

    It was alleged that some of these families were being bribed to tune into certain channels to ramp up their TRP.