Zee producer quits over ‘biased’ JNU-reportage, gets labelled Pro-Afzal, Anti-BJP

Zee News channel’s news producer resigned his job after penning a letter that underscored the bigotry of the channel during its JNU coverage. Vishwa Deepak, who put in his papers on Sunday, talked about the channel’s efforts to paint the revolting students as anti-nationals.

Deepak in his post on Facebook asked how Zee News arrived at the conclusion that the students in JNU are sheer anti-nationals.

“The way adopted by media house’s in portraying the president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union – Kanhaiya Kumar as an anti-national is a dangerous trend…,” he said.

Further, the former Zee news staff also asserted that the video aired by Zee News did not have ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans. He went ahead to question the logic by which the news channel assumed that voices emerged from a dim lighted video, belonged to Kanhaiya Kumar.

“The video did not have ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogan. Still the video was repeatedly played with an intention to spread hatred and confusion,” he added.

Earlier a report by – The Hoot, a media watch organisation, noted that the incidents in JNU were fuelled by Zee News.

“If there is a sedition case filed against the alleged anti-nationalism on display on the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus, it is because of Zee News more than Times Now. Arnab Goswami’s Newshour is getting too much credit for feeding the outrage over slogans shouted on the JNU campus. Zee News was off the block first, was even more single-minded than Times Now in demanding accountability if that is possible, and was strident in questioning the BJP, the Press Club and others as to why the police was not being brought into the picture,” it noted.

However, the channel brushed aside the incident by calling the allegations of Vishwa Deepak ‘nasty’. According to authorities at the channel it is common of resigning staffers to write such ‘nasty letters’.

“On a daily basis people leave and people are being recruited, it is a normal affair. When people leave, they write such nasty letters. This is the organisation’s internal matter,” Editor of Zee News, Sudhir Chaudhary told Newslaundry.

Media trial exemplified once again

Exemplifying the extra-judicial media trials as testified by the former Zee News Staffer in his post, there still remains a section of media which want to let audience know that it was a ‘Pro-Afzal, Anti-BJP’ reporter who resigned from Zee News. 

A post in the website has criticized the rest of the media for painting Deepak ‘neutral’. In a bid to prove its claims about Deepak true, the website has exhumed some his posts which criticize the BJP and RSS.

Posts by Deepak also speak about certain crucial issues like the harm done by Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and capital punishment to delivered to Yakub Memon and Afzal Guru.

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