NEWS organisations earn extra revenue by
organising conclaves: sponsors pour in money to get mileage with the VVIPs who
grace these events. A handshake and a photo opportunity is perhaps supplemented
with a chance to cozy up to the powers-that-be. Prime Minister Narendra Modi
was to preside over one such conclave of a leading media house, whose editor
some decades back used to fancy himself to be the second-most important man in
India after the Prime Minister. The news organisation’s TV channel had been
supportive of the BJP in the UP elections but its print products, particularly
the one printed on pink paper, had gone out of its way to boost the image of
the Samajwadi Party and its young face Akhilesh Yadav. The group had been
allotted prime land in the vicinity of Delhi for an enterprise by the SP
regime. On the day of the conclave, which was billed as a Global Summit, the
Prime Minister’s Office informed that Modi will not attend. Efforts were made
to calm ruffled feathers but to no avail. Posters of PM at the venue were taken
off and it was tersely announced that the main speaker has been changed. On
learning of the PM’s ire, most officers and ruling party persona quietly left
the venue. As did the sponsors. It so transpires that the media group was not
entirely to blame for the pro-SP tilt. During the Mulayam-Akhilesh spat,
apparently chagrined by the group’s Lucknow coverage, the then ruling party of
UP had summoned the group’s top brass to the state capital and conveyed their
displeasure. As prime land was at stake, a compromise was worked out. Some
publicity posters were also printed at reasonable rates to cool down Samajwadi
tempers. After the PM cried off from the Global Summit, the management of the
media group went and shared the above circumstances. Amit Shah and Modi
responded by telling the media group that fair reporting is media; manipulation
and excuses of business are not good ethics.
http://www.gfilesindia.com/all-for-fair-reporting/
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