Zee News and Zee Business, have gone on the offensive against Naveen Jindal and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, after he aired a ‘sting operation’ which claimed that the channel heads demanded a sum of Rs 100 crore to not air a potentially damaging story against the company.
Minutes after the end of the hugely dramatic press conference, both channels went on the offensive and began broadcasting news stories highlighting the atrocities that have allegedly been committed by JSPL and the CAG report on coal block allocations.
With tickers accusing the industrialist of attempting to muzzle the media, Zee News and Zee Business are broadcasting news stories related to the CAG report on coal block allocations. Jindal is among those accused of being involved of benefiting from the coal block allocations.
Jindal at the press conference: Screeengrab from CNN-IBN
“The bigger issue is the CAG report and Coalgate…why has the government suddenly stopped talking about the issue,” Sudhir Chaudhary, who was in the video aired by Jindal, said on air on Zee Business.
“The nation is with us,” he said, adding that people were concerned about the issue.
The channel claims to have material that shows how industrial houses attempt to bribe journalists and hide the truth.
The channel’s editors claim that they had decided to conduct a sting operation on Jindal in order to prove that the industrialist was willing to bribe them to suppress the truth.
“In my first meeting with corporate communications team he promised me Rs 25 crore, he then promised me a advertisement deal with the channel,” Sameer Alhuwalia said on air.
He said that they decided to conduct a sting operation on Jindal to show to what extent the industrialist would go to suppress a story, and decided to get him to sign a dummy Rs 100 crore advertisement contract.
The channel kept showing stories that were against Jindal and the company’s officials kept contacting them to make a deal.
The channel also claimed that Jindal had attempted to ‘flee’ from the hall where he addressed a press conference to avoid a RTI activist Ramesh Agarwal. The channel claimed that the industrialist had filed a case of extortion against him as well.
