Punya Prasun Bajpai is a well known name in the journalism community. Recently, he left the news channel ABP leaving hundreds of people wondering what happened.
He himself then penned an article for The Wire to narrate the story of his exit from the channel.
According to the article, Punya left because of his differences with the proprietor-cum-editor-in-chief of the channel.
He narrated how he was told to not mention Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji in his script followed by a direction to not use any of his pictures for stories on his show Masterstroke (one of the prime, high rated shows on the channel).
He then revealed the diktats that preceded his resignation. Apparently, Prasun had worked on a Masterstroke episode wherein he along with editor Milind Khandekar had done a fact-check on the PM’s ‘Mann KI Baat’ episode. Following which the struggles for the channel began.
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Prasun in his article reports, the party in question then stopped sending its spokespeople for debates and bytes on different issues for the channel.
The situation, according to him, worsened as the satellite starting having issues during 9-10 pm repeatedly which was also the prime time when his show used to air.
For days about 30-40 disturbances were received during the prime time on the channel. When the issue persisted the channel reps finally gave the information out to the world by displaying technical glitch warning on the channel.
The TRPs of the channel declined heavily and the revenue got affected as most advertisers left.
Prasun ended the article with heavy words, narrating how the channel head came to him talking about all these issues which implied it was time for him to leave.
He then goes on to say that as soon as he and some of his colleagues left, satellite started working fine. Advertisers returned and it was almost like nothing ever happened.
The message, according to him, was loud and clear, bow and submit, or you’ll be taught a lesson! Hail, free speech and democracy!
Picture Credits: Google Images
Source: The Wire, Logical Indian, Scroll +more
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