Extortion charge: TV body sacks Zee News editor-business head

The Broadcast Editors’ Association (BEA) Thursday removed Zee News editor and business head Sudhir Chaudhary from the post of treasurer and primary membership of the body.

The BEA, a body of editors from leading TV news channels, had set up a three-member committee on October 10 to investigate allegations made by Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) against Zee News. The JSPL had lodged an FIR alleging extortion, intimidation and defamation by Zee News and its management.

The panel met representatives of JSPL chairman and Congress MP Navin Jindal over the last few days, and reviewed the alleged evidence presented by JSPL in support of its complaint to the police.

The panel, which examined audio and video recordings of conversations between JSPL representatives and Chaudhary and his colleague Samir Ahluwalia, submitted its report on Tuesday. The BEA members decided to remove Chaudhary after a secret ballot today.

A statement by BEA said: “The three-member fact-finding committee arrived at the... conclusion that Mr Sudhir Chaudhary is found to have acted in a manner that is unbecoming of an editor and in a fashion that is prejudicial to the interest and objects of the BEA.”

Chaudhary denied all charges. In a letter to BEA president Shazi Zaman, he imputed ulterior motives to some members of the committee, and accused them of not giving him proper opportunity to present his case.

Chaudhary argued that the committee should have waited for the police report, and asked BEA to “correct the wrong done” to him.

“The one-sided pronouncement is bad in law and unfair in the eyes of natural justice. It has not only sought to compromise my professional position, but also undermine my legal defence,” he said.

JSPL representatives have also filed a complaint with Press Council of India chairman Justice Markandey Katju, alleging that despite the registration of an FIR and its pending investigation, Zee and its associates “are continuing to spread misinformation amongst the journalists, media community, and the public at large on the issue”.

Along with the FIR, JSPL representatives submitted documents to Katju to claim that Zee’s representatives sought advertisements from JSPL not only for the news broadcaster but also sister company Diligent Media Corporation Ltd (DMCL) that publishes the English daily DNA from Mumbai.

Katju forwarded the complaint to News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) chairperson Justice J S Verma to investigate the matter. NBSA is a redressal body set up by news broadcasters to look into complaints against their members.

Mr. Sudhir Choudhary may deny the charges but I have no doubt that the charges are true.

These media channels air a few defamatory programmes. Then they contact the affected party and offer to stop airing these programmes if the affected coughs up a hefty sum. They are in the habit of black-mailing the affected party. In most cased they get away with it.

Unfortunately, this time Zee TV bit off more than it could chew when it decided to black-mail Congress MP, Naveen Jindal.

Navin Jindal is no novice and they have paid the price. This time they have been made the target of a sting operation.

I know from experience.

When my Gurudev, Asharam Bapu was having problems with some of his past disciples, India TV too had approached him with a demand of Rs one crore to stop the defamatory broadcasts against my Gurudev.

My Gurudev refused to bow to their blackmail and the defamatory programmes by India TV, Aaj Tak and Star TV continued.

The programmes stopped only when some disciples of Gurudev conducted a sting operation on the main person, one Mr. Rajubahi and video recorded the conversation. In the sting operation, Rajubhai boasted how he had hired people to defame Gurudev and how much he had paid. He also mentioned the names of the owners of Sandesh newspaper in Gujarat.

CDs were made of the video recording and distributed all over Gujarat.

It was only then that the defamatory programmes against my Gurudev stopped. I congratulate Navin Jindal for his bold action which was long overdue to stop the black-mail of these media channels.