Why Shekhar Gupta’s objections to the Cobrapost paid-media sting are disingenuous

06 June 2018
In addition to the apparent dual standard applicable to The Print’s coverage of sting journalism by Cobrapost as compared to other sting operations, Shekhar Gupta’s memory, too, appears to be playing some tricks.
Hemant Chawla/The India Today Group/Getty Images
In addition to the apparent dual standard applicable to The Print’s coverage of sting journalism by Cobrapost as compared to other sting operations, Shekhar Gupta’s memory, too, appears to be playing some tricks.
Hemant Chawla/The India Today Group/Getty Images

Shekhar Gupta, the founder and editor-in-chief of the news website The Print, and the president of the Editors Guild of India, tweeted on 26 May, “Since you asked: 1st, my personal (editorial) view. I do not accept stings as journalism. It’s a publicly explained view. The Print’s Code of ethics firmly bars stings, pl check the link. The code at IE barred stings too & I presume it hasn’t changed.” He was responding to Yogendra Yadav, the national president of Swaraj India, who urged Gupta, and other editors of national news organisations, to speak up about “Operation 136: Part II”—the second part of a sting operation by the investigative news website Cobrapost, which was published the previous day. The Cobrapost investigation looked into paid news items, and showed how dozens of media houses were ready and willing to push a Hindutva agenda on their official platforms in exchange for large sums of money.

Shekhar Gupta’s tweet was disingenuous to say the least.

Aniruddha Bahal is the editor of Cobrapost.com

Keywords: journalism media ethics sting operations Shekhar Gupta Indian Express India Today Cobrapost
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