"We Stand With Independent Media But...": Congress On Boycott Call Of 14 News Anchors

Congress National Spokesperson Supriya Shrinate, during an interactive session at The Conclave 2023 on Sunday, stated that the decision to ‘boycott’ certain news anchors by the INDIA alliance was taken with a “lot of pain”. She said that the bloc stands beside independent media but will not fall for anchors who use them as “cannon fodder”.

Shrinate was speaking during fourth session of ‘The Conclave 2023’ organized by the Pratidin Media Network at The Ashok in New Delhi on the topic “United Opposition vs NDA”.

Besides Shrinate, the all-woman panel include Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Chief Spokesperson, Priyanka Kakkar and Shajiya Ilmi, Spokesperson of the BJP. The session was moderated by senior journalist Mrinal Talukdar.

Following a heated debate on the topic at hand, a Q&A session ensued where a youth enquired Supriya on the INDIA alliance’s decision to boycott specific journalists and the logic behind it.

Shrinate replied, “I think that’s a decision we took with a lot of pain, because we stand for media and independent media. But media that is going to use you as cannon fodder to serve hatred into your drawing rooms every evening, we don’t want to be a part of that.”

“We are not boycotting channels, we just said we don’t want to engage with these particular anchors because 99.9 % of their shows are Hindu-Muslim…are all polarizing. We don’t want to be served as cannon fodder, it’s a choice that I am making,” she added. 

“The anchors can choose what their topic of the debate is going to be, we are not handing them topics. But I don’t want to go to shows that are decided by somebody in the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) through Whatsapp. I have a choice and my choice is I would rather spend the time more creatively on social media or on some other show,” she further said.

Earlier this month, the coordination committee of the Opposition-led INDIA bloc made a decisive step of prohibiting their representatives from participating in television shows moderated by specific news anchors.

This decision was made following the recommendation of the authorized sub-committee on media, which compiled a list of news anchors for this purpose.

The list of anchors shared by various member parties of the INDIA coalition includes prominent names like Arnab Goswami from Republic Network, Sudhir Chaudhary from Aaj Tak, Amish Devgan from News18 Hindi, Navika Kumar from TimesNow, and Gaurav Sawant from IndiaToday Group, among others, totaling 14 anchors.

According to media reports, the INDIA bloc's aim behind this move is to counter what they perceive as a BJP-driven influence on public opinion through mainstream media outlets. Opposition parties have increasingly turned to social media platforms and independent journalists to amplify their messages, given their perceived imbalance in traditional media coverage.

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