Thread by @MnshaP

.@tweets_prateekg spoke to 4 reporters who were present outside NCB office today who told him what exactly happened. Contrary to social media chatter, the journalist who slapped Pradeep Bhandari is neither from ABP News nor NDTV.
newslaundry.com/2020/09/24/rep…

The journalist who slapped Bhandari told @tweets_prateekg: “He went live and said the NDTV reporter was frustrated, that he comes here to eat chai-biscuits. I went and asked him to behave, and he began hurling abuses at me. After that, I slapped him.”

Acknowledging his mistake, the journalist said that Bhandari has been “insulting other reporters” for the past couple of months. “He used objectionable language against other journalists,” he said. “I don’t believe in getting into fights with people of my own fraternity...”

R Bharat is a tabloid TV network. Its workers on the field are encouraged to heckle, push and shove, and create a scene with the aim to produce a reality TV show. This has got nothing to do with traditional news gathering and often interferes with the work of other reporters.

From @tweets_prateekg's story it's clear that reporters from other networks — across the spectrum from NDTV to ABP to Times Now — had been a bit fed up with the constant heckling Bhandari and Co have been subjecting them to. This is not normal.

Despite channel rivalries and anchors' one-upmanship on TRPs, reporters on the field work together and have pretty cordial working relationships. R Bharat's name-calling is definitely not something reporters indulge in on the field.

But the thing is that people like Bhandari aren't reporters or journalists. He used to be a psephologist and now a mere circus monkey for Arnab. R Bharat itself is not a journalistic operation.

So, while I don't condone slapping Bhandari or any sort of violence against any of R Bharat's workers, the fact is that they are a tabloid TV operation that is abusing journalistic rights and power, and the idea of press freedom.

Update: Late on Thursday evening, a non-cognizable complaint was filed against Bhandari at Colaba police station. The complaint was submitted by Vinod Jagdale, a News24 journalist and the president of the TV Journalists Association.
newslaundry.com/2020/09/24/rep…