NDTV’s Managing Editor Sreenivasan Jain has openly expressed his disappointment over the channel’s decision to take down a story reported by Manas Pratap Singh and him on the financial dealings of BJP chief Amit Shah’s son, Jay Shah.
Jain says that the story, which was initially said to have been taken down for legal vetting, was factual and did not make any accusations, and yet the story has not been restored. He said that it was ‘deeply unfortunate’ but termed it as a ‘depressing aberration’ and added that he would continue to work with NDTV.
Following an expose by former Economic Times journalist Rohini Singh for The Wire on how the revenue of the company owned by Jay Shah skyrocketed by 16,000 times after the BJP came to power, NDTV had done a follow-up story on the loans given to Jay Shah. While the web version of the story was taken down, the video debate continues to be online.
NDTV and Sreenivasan Jain had earlier tweeted that the story was being ‘legally vetted’ by the company’s lawyers.
An earlier NDTV report on Jay Shah's loans is being legally vetted.
— NDTV (@ndtv) October 12, 2017
Its a temporary takedown, while certain legal issues are being examined. Lets not get ahead of ourselves. https://t.co/wXX0vVH6WI
— Sreenivasan Jain (@SreenivasanJain) October 12, 2017
However, the story has not been republished yet.
Writing on Facebook, Jain said, “A week ago, a report by Manas Pratap Singh and me on loans given to Jay Shah's companies was taken down from NDTV's website. NDTV's lawyers said it needed to be removed for "legal vetting". It has still not been restored. This is deeply unfortunate, since the report is based entirely on facts in the public domain and makes no unsubstantiated or unwarranted assertions. A situation like this presents journalists with hard choices. For now, I am treating this is as a distressing aberration and have decided to continue to do the journalism that I have always done – on NDTV. All of this has been conveyed to NDTV.”