COVID and Indian media’s credibility crisis
Faye D’Souza assesses how India’s media outlets handled the challenges of reporting on the coronavirus crisis.
When COVID-19 hit India, it tested all of the country’s institutions, exposing deep flaws in some sectors – especially the vast media sphere. That is the focus of the third episode of Context India.
Manisha Pande, the executive editor of Newslaundry, Govindraj Ethiraj, founder and editor of India Spend, and Bhaskar Ghosh, a spokesman of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), discuss some of the nuances of Indian media’s pandemic performance. Host Faye D’Souza then speaks with two prominent journalists, R Jagannathan, the editorial director of Swarajya, and Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor of The Wire.
At the close of the show, we showcase an excerpt from a song in Bengali – titled “Ami Na Tumi” – which translates into “Me or You”. Songwriter Amartya Ray wrote, performed and filmed this all during India’s first lockdown in 2020.