Reporter Narayan Pargaein gets sacked for flood report atop victim's shoulders

The journalist of Internet infamy, Narayan Pargaien, who sparked off viral outrage with his piece to camera atop a flood affected man’s shoulders in Dehradun has lost his job. In a short statement, Hindi news TV channel News Express said that it had fired Pargaein because of “grave misconduct”. In the statement uploaded on its website News Express said, “In last few days there has been a video circulation in various Social networking Websites where a reporter is sitting on the shoulder of a man while reporting in Uttarakhand flood, such an act by the reporter Mr. Narayan Pargaien was not just inhuman but was also against the culture of our esteemed organisation.” [caption id=“attachment_909481” align=“alignright” width=“380”]  A screengrab from the YouTube video[/caption] It added that “News Express takes pride in being with the people and work for the people, our channel always worked with the intent of representing the people and the society.” After the video of Pargaien went viral, the reporter attempted to justify his actions to News Laundry, saying that the man who was carrying him had insisted on doing so: “It wasn’t my idea to begin with, but there was this man who took me to his home and asked me to report the damage he had suffered. His house was in a miserable condition and he had lost a lot in the flood, and was left with very little food and water. We helped him with some food and some money and he was grateful to us and wanted to show me some respect, as it was the first time someone of my level had visited his house. So while crossing the river he offered to help by carrying me on his shoulder, between which, I thought of reporting the flood. We offered Rs 50 as well for the help he gave me”, he said. News Express Channel in its statement addd that it did not broadcast the video. “It was uploaded by someone we don’t know”, it said. This could tie in with Pargaien’s assertion that he was sabotaged by his cameraman: “…the report was supposed to be telecast only with footage of me chest-up. This was entirely the cameraman’s fault, who, it seems, almost tried to sabotage my career by shooting from that distance and angle and releasing the video mocking this whole incident, and making me the villain”, he told News Laundry.