Press frets as Reliance takes over news channel

“Editorial independence and integrity have been articles of faith in 26 years in journalism and maybe I am too old now to change!”

Reuters/New Delhi/ Mumbai

Just before Reliance Industries Ltd completed a deal to take control of media group Network18 Media & Investments Ltd in early July, two top editors stepped down.

In farewell letters to staff, both mentioned press freedoms.

Neither linked their decision to the change in ownership, but news of their resignation prompted heated debate over the significance of one of India’s most powerful companies buying up some of the country’s leading newsrooms.

On July 7, the Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance is sole beneficiary, completed the acquisition of control of Network18, home to news channels CNN-IBN and CNBC-TV18, Forbes India and firstpost.com, among others.

“Editorial independence and integrity have been articles of faith in (my) 26 years in journalism and maybe I am too old now to change!” wrote one of the two, Rajdeep Sardesai, who was editor-in-chief of IBN 18 News Network, including CNN-IBN, a respected English-language news channel.

On July 21 another editor, Nikhil Wagle, of regional channel IBN-Lokmat which is part of the same group, also resigned, complaining to Reuters of persistent editorial interference by the new owners.

“Every day you can find some example of interference by Reliance - direct interference in news,” Wagle said. “They don’t send any mail. They give oral instructions. They give hints.”

Reliance said it did not interfere in editorial decisions.

“There has never been contact between Reliance and journalists of Network18,” a spokesman said in an e-mail.

The two other editors declined to comment for this article.

The hand of big business in India’s media, as in other parts of the world, is nothing new.

But few private firms loom as large as Reliance, India’s third biggest company by market value and an industrial juggernaut owned by the nation’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani.

Ambani, like other prominent members of India’s business community, has been a supporter of Narendra Modi, India’s recently elected prime minister who stormed to power on the back of promises to kickstart economic growth.

Reliance’s takeover of Network18 raised concerns that the new ownership might result in a bias towards Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its news outlets’ coverage.

The company’s track record of issuing legal notices related to defamatory content to the media amplified broader unease that reporters were being exposed to powerful backers’ whims and that self-censorship was on the rise.

CNN-IBN and other Network18 outlets remain among the most esteemed news brands in a country with a vast and lively press.

They now share the challenge faced by news organisations around the world that cover large companies or powerful individuals who own them.

Such acquisitions do not necessarily hamper journalistic independence, some experts argue.

“The US media is in a small number of hands, and still produces the best journalism,” said Nikhil Moro, outgoing associate journalism professor at University of North Texas.

In an e-mail to Reuters, a Reliance spokesman said the firm will seek to protect “the credibility of all news networks.”

But some former and current Network18 journalists say Reliance’s influence in the newsroom has already been felt.

Days after the deal, when Amit Shah, a close ally of Modi, was appointed head of the BJP, instructions from Network18’s new management to steer coverage away from criminal charges pending against him passed between senior members of the network’s newsrooms, two sources said.

Reuters could not independently verify the instructions or precisely how they were communicated.

Shah has denied charges of murder in connection with the 2005 killing of a man police said was an Islamic militant on a mission to assassinate Modi, as well as the deaths of his wife and a witness.

Umesh Upadhyay, recently appointed president of news at Network18, strongly denied suggestions that the group’s journalists are pressured to act against their own judgment.

A veteran journalist who has worked at several major news outlets in India, Upadhyay’s last job was a short stint as media director at Reliance.

“What happens in a newsroom is a sacrosanct editorial function,” he told Reuters. “Network18 is a very solid news organisation. I am very proud of the teams that are working there.”

Some former staffers said they saw the company’s hand in decisions on news coverage as far back as 2012, when Reliance invested in Network18.  

Tensions surfaced at CNN-IBN during the run up to the April and May elections that brought Modi to power. Two ex-employees said there was pressure on coverage of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its leader Arvind Kejriwal, who had recently launched an attack on Reliance chairman Ambani.

Kejriwal failed in his bid to enter parliament, losing out to Modi. But as Delhi’s chief minister, he had ordered an investigation into Ambani and policymakers over alleged corruption related to artificially inflating gas prices. The company has called the allegations “baseless.”