Former NDTV Journalist Vedanta Agarwal Explains Everything that Changed After Adani Took Over the Channel

THE TAKEOVER of New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV) in 2022 was a major and controversial development in the Indian media industry. NDTV is one of India's largest and most trusted news organisations, publishing news in both Hindi and English. Because of its reputation for independent journalism, the takeover drew widespread attention and kept everyone watching closely.

The acquisition gave the Adani Group a controlling majority stake in NDTV. It began with Adani's AMG Media Networks acquiring Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (VCPL), which held loan warrant conversion rights over NDTV. The company subsequently purchased shares through an open offer and later acquired shares from founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy. Together, these transactions gave the Adani Group a 64% stake in the company. 

Following the acquisition, several senior journalists and executives resigned, expressing concerns that the takeover could affect the company's editorial independence and newsroom management. One of the first to resign was Ravish Kumar, Senior Executive Editor and Magsaysay Award-winning journalist. He was followed by founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, who stepped down from the board. Group Editor Sreenivasan Jain, Executive Editor and prominent anchor Nidhi Razdan, and several other senior journalists also left the organisation. 

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Recently, in an interview with KK Create, two former NDTV journalists, Priyanshi Sharma and Vedanta Agarwal, spoke about their experiences during the changing editorial environment at NDTV. They said that after witnessing editorial freedom shrink, they decided to leave the organisation and build Peek TV from scratch.

How NDTV Editorial Freedom Changed After the Adani Takeover

Speaking about the period following the takeover, Vedanta Agarwal said that many senior editors left the organisation. He said, "A big change was that we saw for the first time that some stories were being blocked." He explained that during the Manipur violence, when the video of two women being paraded naked went viral, the newsroom received instructions from senior management.

According to Agarwal, the primary focus shifted to highlighting the government's response rather than reporting the incident itself. He said, "When that video went viral, we got an order from above to run this ticker. Only this ticker should run that the Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani has spoken to those people and has taken cognisance of the incident."

He added that they were instructed to run only the ticker and not the full story, saying that for the first time, the newsroom reported the government's response instead of the incident itself.

The G20 and the NDTV headlines

Agarwal said there is a basic principle in journalism regarding how a news story should be structured.

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He said, "Victim voice, expert voice, and finally the government voice. Now every story has to start with what the government has said. Thirdly, we felt that for the first time, a government event is being celebrated as a carnival." He further alleged that it didn't matter whether it was the G20 conclave or other government events; even the Budget was celebrated. Instead of portraying it as news, it was celebrated.

He said, “You are getting big sets. Earlier, NDTV had so little money that there was no set, it was on the green screen. Actually, the bulletins of NDTV were on the green screen because there was no money.” He said that if PM Modi was giving a speech at the G20, then the coverage became, “What a moment! Modi waves at foreign media at G20. What a moment!” It was running on the top band. “What a moment!” That, he said, was something they had never seen before.

He stated that earlier the headlines were simply "PM Modi arrives at G20," "PM Modi speaks," and "G20 resolutions." Now, everything had become a carnival, and everyone had to be part of it. They had to show that India was at the top. “You have to show it. And you have the anchor. For the first time, you feel the pressure of how to show that India has made a big achievement, or how big an achievement it is for Modi. This is what I felt. So, I think these three big changes came,” he added.

'The Editorial Hierarchy Was Lost': Vedanta Agarwal on Newsroom Changes 

Agarwal then talked about the hierarchy inside the media house and how they lost that hierarchy. He said that it was not just the current government, but the UPA government and every government used to censor news channels. “Every government calls the proprietors and owners. What are you running? They scold you. Access is cut. Interviews are dropped.”

He said that earlier, people in power like Prannoy Roy, Raghav Bahl, Rajdeep Sardesai, and Karan Thapar used to handle the newsroom. They were strong enough to tackle the government at their own level and used to take a stand. Now, he said, the proprietors are appointed by the government.

He said that the flow has changed now, the proprietor calls the Editor-in-Chief, and then the Editor-in-Chief comes to the newsroom and tells you that certain things need to be included in the bulletin. This keeps happening continuously, and later the person sitting at the desk automatically knows that the Editor-in-Chief will come and tell him that the Prime Minister is speaking, so he will cut the video himself.

He said that now the hierarchy is no longer there. “So, now there is no hierarchy left. There is no editorial hierarchy. If the PM is speaking, it has to be cut. That is the gospel truth of all these channels. That this is the principle of our editorial. If the PM is speaking, it has to be cut.”

(Edited by Harsh Pandey)

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