NDTV Takeover Sets The Alarm Bells Ringing

The resignation and the exit of renowned journalist and pioneering broadcaster Dr Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy on Tuesday night has cleared the way for the takeover of the independent TV channel NDTV by the group headed by noted industrialist Gautam Adani whose star has been ascendant since the arrival of Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre.

The Roy duo resigned as directors of the RRPR Holding Private Ltd, the promoter group vehicle of the New Delhi Television ltd (NDTV). Also gone with the directors is Magsaysay Award winning journalist Mr. Ravish Kumar, host of the ‘Prime Time’ show that continually set the bar high for journalism of conscience by speaking truth to the powers that be. Kumar resigned a day later finding little scope for survival as a voice of conscience. New directors have been ushered into the company.

The takeover has been set in motion since August when a firm that had loaned money to the RRPR Holdings was acquired by the Adani Group. The process was complicated but ominous forebodings were more than apparent. The conglomerate was out to apply the timetested scheme of asset acquisition from the playbook of the rapacious feudal lords of yore. As was known, loans extended to the farmers in distress only ended in the lenders acquiring the lands of the penurious farmers. The broadcaster could smell the ambush late in the evening.

The takeover cannot be viewed from the narrow prism of a commercial deal. Ownership of the media has larger ramifications than the changing hands of a commercial enterprise. Increasing concentration of media ownership in a few hands in a diverse plurality like India has far reaching implications and the consequences for the nature of discourse can only be imagined. Some of these are quite evident from the acquisition of News 18 by another business conglomerate a few years ago.

The takeover is no less than an alarm bell for independent journalism which favours public interest over political, commercial, and in Indian context, narrow communal and partisan interests. Internet and spread of social media had emerged as a threat to the credible and trustworthy news outlets manned by people of known credibility. Internet companies had narrowed down their revenue sources of these outlets with drastic decline of advertisements.

With every consumer of the news having been enabled to be a broadcaster and purveyor of information, the internet has been awash with loads of misinformation. In September 2020 alone, Twitter had carried over one million posts that were inaccurate, unreliable, fake, false, farcical, misleading and mischievous. There are risks involved when a conglomerate that operates ports, runs freight train, handles airports, manufactures cement, owns warehouses, builds highways, also owns media.

Any such media is bound to shape the narrative to pander to the interest of the powers-that-be as much of the approvals for the industries are discretionary and available and accessible to the ones willing to play footsie with disbursers of contracts, sanctions, allocations and licences.