Live: Jindal's sting op on Zee shows need for media transparency?

6:10 pm: Jindal’s sting exposes need for greater media transparency?

PN Vasanti from the Centre for Media Studies says that the sting operation gives the media a reason to become more transparent in its operations.

“It is a fascinating evolution of Indian media so far,” she said on CNN IBN.

“Zee has to understand that they are not the channel showing scams, but when are the channels accountable and who are they accountable to?” Vasanti said.

5:00 pm: Zee continues looping visual of Jindal jumping, says it won’t stop battle against corruption

“By showing a four minute trailor, Jindal cannot escape the truth…..We have much more proof against Jindal,” Chaudhary said.

The battle against corruption will continue he said, adding that the channel will continue its battle against corruption. With that dramatic dialogue, the show comes to an end. However, they’re not going to end the coverage of the issue now and will continue with the same story.

This is what Nikhil Wagle, editor of IBN Lokmat had to say on the matter:

https://twitter.com/waglenikhil/status/261426507258408960

4:45 pm: Zee says high police presence at Jindal’s press conference proof of his guilt

Zee Business claims that the MP had ensured that there was high police presence in the press conference to ensure that people weren’t able to ask questions freely.

The police reportedly threw out Agarwal’s son from the hall, the channel’s reporter said. And we’re back with visuals of Jindal jumping off the stage to beat a hasty exit.

The headline of the show: ’ Jindal ka jhooth, Koyle ka sach’ (Jindal’s lies and the truth about coal)

Meanwhile, others from the media industry have raised questions on Twitter about the sting operation:

https://twitter.com/SachinKalbag/status/261424702927540224

https://twitter.com/SachinKalbag/status/261424231374532608

4:25 pm: Zee Business say that Jindal fled press conference venue

Zee Business claims that Jindal’s men were behind a murderous attack on RTI activist Ramesh Agarwal and says the industrialist fled the venue to avoid confronting the RTI activist. Why the RTI activist turned up at the venue abruptly finds no explanation though.

The channel also shows Jindal jumping off the stage in order to leave the press conference, and say it shows that he was attempting to flee those leveling allegations against him.

“The truth is weeping now,” the anchor said. Its a war of adjectives now.

Zee Business claims it is an attempt to muzzle the media, particularly Zee News and itself, over the CAG report on coal block allocations. There are no videos or evidence they’re airing for now though.

4:15 pm: Channel claims that they were conducting sting on Jindal

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 aboutJindal and the CAG report on coal block allocations, 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 Agarwal as well in the past.

4:00 pm: Zee News and Zee Business go on the offensive against Jindal

Both channels has begun broadcasting news stories highlighting the atrocities that have allegedly been committed by JSPL and the CAG report on coal block allocations.

With tickers that accuse 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.

“The bigger issue is the CAG report and Coalgate…why has the government suddenly stopped talking about the issue,” Sudhir Chaudhary, Business Head and Editor of Zee News 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.

3.51 pm: Twitter on fire after Jindal press conference

Predictably Twitter is all afire following the stunning revelations just made by Naveen Jindal. The tweets range from shock to disbelief, and of course satire. We reproduce a few below:

https://twitter.com/rameshsrivats/status/261412200311316480

https://twitter.com/sagarikaghose/status/261412060599033858

https://twitter.com/Mrityunjoykjha/status/261411882303373312

3.46 pm: Jindal ends stunning press conference, says he has more evidence against Zee

Naveen Jindal ends his press conference, saying that this was the first time that a corporate has made allegations like this against a media group. He adds that the company has many more tapes in its possession, but that he has released only the relevant parts to show how Zee television wanted to target them and make Rs 100 crore.

We have a lot of recordings and are releasing only the relevant parts of the tapes, Jindal said.

We hope other media outlets will air it. All norms of journalism have been violated in this matter by Zee News. We had no intention to bring this matter to the public, he said.

3:40: Jindal airs shocking video showing Zee officials demanding bribe

Congress MP Naveen Jindal today aired video clips which showed officials from Zee News and Zee Business demanding Rs 100 crore in order to stop broadcasting stories that showed him in a defamatory manner.

The Chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd claimed that the Zee News and Zee Business had broadcast a story which showed him in a negative light, and the corporate communications team from his company had attempted to get in touch with officials from the channel.

In a meeting held in September, the officials from the channel met with the corporate communications team where they initially demanded Rs 20 crore, Jindal said.

They subsequently upped the demand to Rs 100 crore, he said.

“There were more meetings and the Zee news officials demanded Rs 100 crore at a meeting in a coffee bar in New Delhi and said that we must have heard the original demand wrong,” Jindal said.

The MP said that his company’s budget for advertising with the media, particularly television news, was much lower than Rs 20 crore since they were in the business of steel manufacture and power generation.

“They threatened to continue broadcasting defamatory material if we did not make the payments,” he said.

The press conference witnessed its share of drama with a wheelchair bound person alleging that the Congress MP was involved in the murder of a man in Chhattisgarh. Jindal claimed that the men were attempting to disrupt the press conference to divert attention from his allegations.

Jindal said that after consultations with his team they decided to file an FIR with the Delhi police, and filed a case of extortion.

“When on 19 October Zee News began broadcasting that we were attempting to blackmail them we decided to make material public,” he said.

Read the full transcript of the reverse sting operation by Naveen Jindal on Zee News

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